Cover of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

The clash of civilizations is a controversial theory in international relations. It was originally formulated in an article by Samuel P. Huntington entitled "The Clash of Civilizations?" published in the academic journal Foreign Affairs in 1993. Huntington later received a grant from the John M. Olin Foundation to expand this thesis in his 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order cover This image is a book cover. ... The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order cover This image is a book cover. ... International relations (IR) is an academic and public policy field, a branch of political science, dealing with the foreign policy of states within the international system, including the roles of international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). ... Samuel Phillips Huntington (born April 18, 1927) is a political scientist known for his analysis of the relationship between the military and the civil government, his investigation of coup detats, and his thesis that the central political actors of the 21st century will be civilizations rather than nation-states. ... Academic publishing describes a system of publishing that is necessary in order for academic scholars to review work and make it available for a wider audience. ... This article is about a journal. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... John M. Olin Foundation was founded by John Merrill Olin in 1953 from the profits of his successful chemical and munitions manufacturing business. ... Thesis - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations?"

In the article, he argued that the primary political actors in the 21st century will be civilizations and that the primary conflicts will be conflict between civilizations rather than between nation states. The article was written in response to the idea by Francis Fukuyama that the world was approaching the end of history in which Western liberal democracy would prove triumphant. In the Foreign Affairs article, Huntington writes: (20th century - 21st century - 22nd century - other centuries) Decades: 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s 2060s 2070s 2080s 2090s In calendars based on the Christian Era or Common Era, such as the Gregorian calendar, the 21st century is the current century, as of this writing. ... A civilization or civilisation has a variety of meanings related to human society. ... The term nation-state, while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to the parallel occurence of a state and a nation. ... Francis Fukuyama (born October 27, 1952 in Chicago) is an influential American political economist and author. ... The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay The End of History?, in which he argues the controversial thesis that the end of the Cold War signals the end of the progression of human history: What we may... Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where elected representatives that hold the decision power are moderated by a constitution that emphasizes protecting individual liberties and the rights of minorities in society (also called constitutional liberalism), such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to...

It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.

Huntington later expanded this thesis in his 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Thesis - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

These civilizations are mostly divided along religious lines. The main ones he sees are:

• Western Christendom, centered on Europe and North America. Whether Latin America and the former member states of the Soviet Union are included, or are instead their own separate civilizations, will be an important future consideration for those regions, according to Huntington.
  • The Orthodox world of Eastern Europe and Russia.
  • Latin America
• The Muslim world of the Middle East, North Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia
• The Hindu civilization, located chiefly in India
• The Sinic civilization of China, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and the large Chinese diaspora in Asia and the West
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• The Buddhist areas of Northern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, Buryatia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Tibet.
• Japan

Huntington argues that throughout the post-Cold War era world conflicts have occurred along borders between civilizations with very little fighting within civilizations. Wars such as those following the break up of Yugoslavia, in Chechnya, and between India and Pakistan are all evidence of intercivilizational conflict, according to Huntington. Huntington also cites various conflicts over human rights, weapons proliferation and disarmament, trade conflicts, and other issues as coinciding with the Clash of Civilizations paradigm. He discusses positions taken by various countries in the United Nations in his book as well. This mediæval map, which abstracts the known world to a cross inscribed within an orb, remakes geography in the service of Christian iconography. ... A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Azores and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa, though they do not share a common culture with North Africa. ... Look up Diaspora in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term diaspora (Greek διασπορά, a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing... A satellite composite image of Africa showing the ecological break between North and Sub-Saharan regions Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa south of the Sahara Desert, is the term used to describe those countries of Africa that are not part of North Africa. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... The Buryat Republic (Russian: Респу́блика Буря́тия; Buryat: Буряад Республика) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Tibet - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Cold War was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies. ... The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a Balkan state that existed from 1945 to 1992. ... The Chechen Republic (Russian: Чеченская Республика; Chechen: Нохчийн Республика/Noxçiyn Respublika), also known as Chechnya (Russian: Чечня, Chechen: Нохчичьо/Noxçiyçö), Ichkeria, Chechnia or Chechenia, is currently a constituent republic of the Russian Federation. ...

He also views conflict between areas as all but inevitable because of substantially different value systems. He argues that the growth of notions such as democracy and free-trade since the end of the Cold War has really only affected Western Christendom and that the rest of the world has played little role in globalization to this point.

Huntington argues that the level of East Asian economic growth will enable the Sinic civilization to be a powerful rival to the West. He also states that the demographic and economic growth of other civilizations will result in a much more multipolar civilizational system. Sinic refers to a putative civilizational category devised by Samuel Huntington in defense of his theory of the clash of civilizations. Huntington identifies China as the primary Sinic member, in addition to Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and various Asian communities around the world. ... Western Culture refers to the culture that has developed in the Western world. ... A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment. ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ...

Huntingon classifies the Islamic and the Sinic civilizations as challenger civilizations to the West and labels the Orthodox, Hindu, and Japanese civilizations as "swing" civilizations. He also states that Russia and India will continue to cooperate closely while China and Pakistan will both continue to oppose India. Huntington argues that an "Islamic-Confucian connection" is emerging in which China will cooperate more closely with Iran, Pakistan, and other states to augment its international position. Huntington notes that both countries from both civilizations will value cooperation from those of the other. Islam ( Arabic al-islām الإسلام,  listen?) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith and the worlds second-largest religion. ... Sinic refers to a putative civilizational category devised by Samuel Huntington in defense of his theory of the clash of civilizations. Huntington identifies China as the primary Sinic member, in addition to Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and various Asian communities around the world. ... Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... The Sino-Islamic connection or Islamic-Confucian connection refers the idea of an alliance or diplomatic and military cooperation between Islamic states and the government or military-industrial complex of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... See also Samuel Huntington See also Huntingtons disease Huntington is the name of a number of places: United Kingdom Huntington, East Lothian, Scotland Huntington, Cheshire, England Huntington, City of York, England Huntington, Herefordshire, England Huntington, Staffordshire, England United States of America Huntington in Sebastian County, Arkansas Huntington in Fairfield...

Modernization, westernization, and "torn countries"

Clash of Civilizations critics often target traditional culture and internal reformers who do not wish to Westernize whilst modernizing. They sometimes claim that to modernize is to necessarily become Westernized to a very large extent. Those who consider the Clash of Civilizations paradigm an accurate one can offer in refutation of this argument the example of Japan, which is not a Western state at its core. It adopted much Western technology (inventing some technology of its own in recent times), parliamentary democracy, and free enterprise but has remained culturally very distinct from the West. China is cited by some as a rising non-Western economy. A tradition is a story or a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. ... Look up Culture in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikinews has news related to this article: Culture and entertainment Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cultural Development in Antiquity Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Culture and Civilization in Modern Times Classificatory system for cultures and civilizations, by Dr. Sam Vaknin... The term Western world can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... Capitalism generally refers to in philosophy and politics, a social system based on the principle of individual rights, including property rights. ...

Perhaps the ultimate example of non-Western modernization is Russia, the core state of the Orthodox civilization. The variant of this argument that uses Russia as an example relies on the acceptance of a unique non-Western civilization headed by an Orthodox state such as Russia or perhaps an Eastern European country. Huntington argues that Russia is primarily a non-Western state although he seems to agree that it shares a considerable amount of cultural ancestry with the modern West. Russia was one of the great powers during World War I. It also happened to be a non-Western power. According to Huntington, the West is distinguished from Orthodox Christian countries by the experience of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Enlightenment, overseas colonialism rather than contigious expansion and colonism, and an infusion of Classical culture through Rome rather than the Byzantine Empire. The differences among the modern Slavic states can still be seen today. This issue is also linked to the "universalizing factor" exhibited in some civilizations. Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ... Eastern Europe is, by convention, a region defined geographically as that part of Europe covering the eastern part of the continent. ... In the context of international relations and diplomacy, power (sometimes clarified as international power, national power, or state power) is the ability of one state to influence or control other states. ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance -French Renaissance -German Renaissance -English Renaissance The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a larger period which includes the Age of Reason. ... Classical antiquity is a broad and perhaps misleading term for a long period of European, Middle East and North African history, that begins roughly with the earliest recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni (Democratici di Sinistra) Area  - City Proper  1290 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,546,807 almost 4,000,000 1... The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, a Christian state of the Greek nation, centred at its capital in Constantinople. ... The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. ...

Huntington refers to countries that are seeking to affiliate with another civilization as "torn countries." Turkey, whose political leadership has systematically tried to westernize the country since the 1920's, is his chief example. Turkey's history, culture, and traditions are derived from Islamic civilization, but Turkey's western-oriented elite imposed western institutions and dress, embraced the Latin alphabet, joined NATO, and is seeking to join the European Union. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world. ... The flag of NATO NATO 2002 Summit The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance, Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for defence collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, D.C., on April 4, 1949. ...

According to Huntington, a torn country must meet three requirements in order to redefine its civilizational identity. Its political and economic elite must support the move. Second, the public must be willing to accept the redefinition. Third, the elites of the civilization that the torn country is trying to join must accept the country.

Criticisms

Huntington's piece in Foreign Affairs created more responses than almost any other essay ever published in that journal. There have been many criticisms of his thesis. Many have argued that his civilizations are very fractured with little unity. Vietnam still keeps a massive army, mostly to guard against China. The Muslim world is severely fractured along ethnic lines with Kurds, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Pakistanis, and Indonesians all having very different world views. Kurds are one of the Iranian peoples and speak Kurdish, a north-Western Iranian language related to Persian. ... For other uses, see Arab (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Persians, a nationality and an ethnic group. ...

It has been pointed out that values are more easily transmitted and altered than Huntington proposes. Nations such as India and Japan have become successful democracies, and the West itself was rife with despotism and fundamentalism for most of its history. Supporters, however, have noted that tensions have often emerged between democratic states and that emerging (or future) democracies in civilizations could very well remain hostile to states belonging to civilizations which are viewed as hostile. Furthermore, they point out that the countries of different civilizations place greatly different amount of emphasis on the nature of the internal governments of countries with which they trade and support in international issues (as with India, Russia, and Japan).

Others who accept his view of divisions along civilizational lines have attacked the idea that conflict is inevitable, arguing that all but a few radicals in each civilization would prefer to coexist amicably. Furthermore, the Clash of Civilizations theory does not encourage dialogue between the civilization but instead encourages further conflict as cultural differences are seen as insurmountable.

Universalization versus particularism and the debate over Huntington's thesis

Supporters of Samuel Huntington sometimes posit that universalist civilizations, such as the Western civilization, often attempt to enforce and spread their ideas into regions that are hostile at a basic level. These universalizing civilizations generally rationalize their ideas and culture as being superior though often this idea can be a quite subtle notion exhibited in claims such as "The West has to find Westernizing states which bring about basic change to give it leverage in the Middle East or East Asia". They often become somewhat frustrated when other regions of the world do not readily adopt ideas from their own civilization. The West is more confident than most civilizations due to its massive success in the last several centuries and hence pursues this objective with more vigor. Anthropologists, specifically of the Boasian school, often criticize the idea that some cultures are innately superior in most respects (though they do not claim there are not some differences among civilizations). In comparative religion, a universalist religion is one that holds itself true for all people; it thus allows all to join, regardless of ethnicity. ... For alternative meanings for The West in the United States, see the U.S. West and American West. ... A compass rose with West highlighted West is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... East Asia can be defined in either cultural or geographic terms. ... The term Western world can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... For other uses, see Boa (disambiguation). ...

Huntington's predictions: analysis and retrospect

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Huntington appeared prescient to many, and the subsequent attacks by Western states upon Afghanistan and Iraq fueled the perception that Huntington's Clash was well underway. The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated attacks carried out in the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. ...

Some maintained that the 1995 and 2004 enlargements of the European Union brought the EU's eastern border up to the boundary between Huntington's Western and Orthodox civilizations; most of Europe's historically Protestant and Roman Catholic countries (with the exception of Croatia and countries like Switzerland and Norway who voluntarily opted out of EU membership) were now EU members, while a number of Europe's historically Orthodox countries (with exceptions such as longtime EU member Greece and newly accepted Cyprus) were outside the EU. As others have noted, however, the strong EU candidacies of Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the overwhelming ascendancy of pro-Western powers in Ukraine's 2004 presidential elections, did not bode well for Huntington's arbitrary positioning of Orthodox Christianity separately from mainstream Western civilization. Unlike Turkey's request for membership, which has caused considerable debate within the EU as to what constituted Europe, the candidacies of Christian Orthodox countries were met with unanimous support and considered to be the natural inclusion of traditional European civilizations into the Union. Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...

There are other possible issues which appear to counter Huntington's thesis. Eleven years later, the relationship between Japan and the US is still close, with Japan providing monetary and political support for US foreign policies. Also a Sino-Islamic alliance that Huntington saw as inevitable has not yet come to pass during the intervening 11 years.

German geographers has pointed out that Huntington's regions of "civilizations" are affected by the concept of the "Kulturerdteile" (culture-continents) of the geographer Albert Kolb - a deprecated theory from 1962. In this theory, the effect of religious aspects were less important than historical and social aspects. Physical map of the Earth ( Medium) ( Large 2 MB) Geography is the scientific study of the locational and spatial variation in both physical and human phenomena on Earth. ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Possible resolution of the argument

A synthesis of Huntington's argument with other paradigms such as "resource-based conflicts" or resource wars are a plausible way to reconcile the diverse economic, political, and cultural paradigms which have been proffered recently. Even if this happens by a concerted effort there will still be substantial disagreement on what weight should be assigned to each idea, ideology, or motive and how to calculate or anticipate the interactions among the diverse and sometimes divergent theories. For alternative meanings see Paradigm (disambiguation). ... Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... Politics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. ... The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). ... For alternative meanings see Paradigm (disambiguation). ... An ideology is a collection of ideas. ... For other meanings of motive see motive (algebraic geometry) and (alternate spelling of) motif (music). ...

See also

• Robert D. Kaplan
• The End of History and the Last Man

Robert D. Kaplan (born 1952) is a prominent but controversial American journalist currently an editor for the Atlantic Monthly. ... The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay The End of History?, in which he argues the controversial thesis that the end of the Cold War signals the end of the progression of human history: What we may...

External links

• "The Clash of Civilizations?", text of the original essay
• "The True Clash of Civilizations", by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Foreign Policy 2003. This article discusses recent surveys of opinions in predominantly Islamic nations and claims that the real rift between civilizations does not concern the question of democracy (which is generally approved) but rather the attitudes towards sexuality and gender equality. Those societies that do not tolerate self-expression, it argues, are unlikely to become stable democracies.