Clash of Civilizations (theory)

Extracted Attributes

• Field

  Political Science, Geopolitics, Sociology

• Context

  Post-Cold War era

• Core Argument

  Cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world, with future wars fought between cultures/civilizations.

• Earlier Concept

  Clash of cultures

• Identified Civilizations

  Western, Confucian (China), Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, African

Timeline

• The phrase "Clash of Civilizations" appears in Basil Mathews' book "Young Islam on Trek: A Study in the Clash of Civilizations." (Source: wikipedia)

  1926

• The phrase "Clash of Civilizations" is used by Albert Camus. (Source: wikipedia)

  1946

• The phrase "Clash of Civilizations" is used by Girilal Jain in his analysis of the Ayodhya dispute. (Source: wikipedia)

  1988

• Bernard Lewis uses the phrase in an Atlantic Monthly article titled "The Roots of Muslim Rage." (Source: wikipedia)

  1990-09

• Samuel P. Huntington proposes the thesis in a lecture at the American Enterprise Institute. (Source: wikipedia)

  1992

• Mahdi El Mandjra publishes his book "La première guerre civilisationnelle" using the phrase. (Source: wikipedia)

  1992

• Samuel P. Huntington publishes the article "The Clash of Civilizations?" in Foreign Affairs. (Source: wikipedia)

  1993

• Samuel P. Huntington expands his thesis into the book "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." (Source: wikipedia)

  1996

Clash of Civilizations

The "Clash of Civilizations" is a thesis that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post–Cold War world. The American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington argued that future wars would be fought not between countries, but between cultures. It was proposed in a 1992 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, which was then developed in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article titled "The Clash of Civilizations?", in response to his former student Francis Fukuyama's 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man. Huntington later expanded his thesis in a 1996 book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The phrase itself was earlier used by Albert Camus in 1946, by Girilal Jain in his analysis of the Ayodhya dispute in 1988, by Bernard Lewis in an article in the September 1990 issue of The Atlantic Monthly titled "The Roots of Muslim Rage" and by Mahdi El Mandjra in his book "La première guerre civilisationnelle" published in 1992. Even earlier, the phrase appears in a 1926 book regarding the Middle East by Basil Mathews: Young Islam on Trek: A Study in the Clash of Civilizations. This expression derives from "clash of cultures", already used during the colonial period and the Belle Époque. Huntington began his thinking by surveying the diverse theories about the nature of global politics in the post–Cold War period. Some theorists and writers argued that human rights, liberal democracy, and the capitalist free market economy had become the only remaining ideological alternative for nations in the post–Cold War world. Specifically, Francis Fukuyama argued that the world had reached the 'end of history' in a Hegelian sense. Huntington believed that while the age of ideology had ended, the world had only reverted to a normal state of affairs characterized by cultural conflict. In his thesis, he argued that the primary axis of conflict in the future will be along cultural lines. As an extension, he posits that the concept of different civilizations, as the highest category of cultural identity, will become increasingly useful in analyzing the potential for conflict. At the end of his 1993 Foreign Affairs article, "The Clash of Civilizations?", Huntington writes, "This is not to advocate the desirability of conflicts between civilizations. It is to set forth descriptive hypothesis as to what the future may be like." In addition, the clash of civilizations, for Huntington, represents a development of history. In the past, world history was mainly about the struggles between monarchs, nations and ideologies, such as that seen within Western civilization. However, after the end of the Cold War, world politics moved into a new phase, in which non-Western civilizations are no longer the exploited recipients of Western civilization but have become additional important actors joining the West to shape and move world history.

Web Search Results

• Clash of the Civilisations | Topics | Sociology

  Clash of the civilisations was a theory created by Samuel Huntington about civilisations which people belong to. He argues that these civilisations are linked with religion, and therefore the religious identities are becoming increasingly more central to the modern world. He identifies the following civilisations in the world Western, Confucian (china), Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-orthodox, Latin American and African. Huntington argues that conflict occurs only when these civilisations

• Clash of Civilizations & Civilizationist Populism

  The Clash of Civilizations is a thesisthat people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. The American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington argued that future wars would be fought not between countries, but between cultures. It was proposed in a 1992 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, which was then developed in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article titled ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’, in response to his former student [...] According to an article by Azmi Bishara, the prevalent dogma in China and Russia sees the spread of democracy as an extension of western civilization, and therefore as a tool of western hegemony. In short, this means that, globally, the theory of the clash of civilizations is currently being adopted by these two major powers, particularly Russia. Bishara suggests that if Huntington were alive today, he might be shocked by my assertion that the clash of civilizations has become a Russian and [...] Bishara also underlines that “If Huntington thought hard, however, he would find the idea logical. His theory on the clash of civilizations has been taken up in the US by the conservative nationalist right, which believes in power politics in international relations. It is precisely these forces that believe in this political credo who are ruling Russia today. They are right-wing conservative Russian nationalists. Much the same applies to China, although the economic policy model and the

• The "Clash of Civilizations", an oversimplification of World Order?

  In geopolitics, the study of world conflicts has been the subject of several interpretations, one of the best-known being Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” theory. His theory was first presented in Foreign Affairs magazine in 1993. Three years later, the American professor expanded on his analysis in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Both in the US and internationally, among the general public and in academia, his book has had great success. In [...] 1993, Samuel Huntington hypothesised that the world’s major conflicts would no longer be about ideologies – as was the case during the Cold War – but would be between countries of different “civilisations”. His entire theory is based on the assumption that there are 8 civilisations: Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, and African. [...] Moreover, in order to make the Clash of Civilizations the paradigm of global conflict, Huntington focuses on conflicts with very wide media coverage. However, there are other conflicts and it is worth asking whether they actually support Huntington’s theory. In this respect, quantitative studies can provide interesting insights through empirical tests. According to the statistical analysis performed by Professor Jonathan Fox, non-civilisational insurgencies by ethnic minority groups are almost

• What's Wrong with the “Clash of Civilizations”?

  precisely with respect to accounting for the most important phenomena of the post-Cold War era, the “clash of civilizations” is an erroneous theory. It neither foresaw the form of international conflicts in the post-Cold War era, nor did it clarify the general trends of the era. Furthermore, this theory, in terms of its world outlook level, is negative and destructive, and its negative impact on the building of a new world political and economic order cannot be ignored. [...] Huntington’s “clash of civilizations theory” divides the world into eight civilizations, and predicts that international conflicts in the post-Cold War era will take place between them. The “fault lines” between civilizations would be especially likely to erupt into violent conflicts, and the world would appear as if groups of civilizations are in confrontation with one another. However, from the end of the Cold War to the foreseeable future, international conflicts have not actually appeared [...] As an outlook on the world, the “clash of civilizations” is a harmful theory. Using “civilization” to explain current conflicts and predict future ones can only serve to expand their scope and create more discord. There is an old Chinese saying that “conflict should be resolved, not intensified.” It is at least unkind to interpret international conflicts or “fights” between nations as leading sooner or later to “group fights” between civilizations. In this sense, the “clash of civilizations”

• Samuel Huntington "The Clash of Civilizations?" - Good in Theory

  Samuel J. Huntington’s 1993 “The Clash of Civilizations?” is the most assigned article in American political science. It predicts a worldwide culture war (but not the kind you're thinking of). The book became a massive bestseller, Huntington was all over TV and his theory is still talked about all the time. It made him a darling to the press but reviled by his fellow academics. Think of "Clash" as a dark rejoinder to Fukuyama’s already-pretty-morose “End of History.” Instead of a peaceful but [...] [00:11:35] Japan, they've stopped trying to copy the west. Now they're trying to be more Asian. India is trying to be more Hindu. The middle east is getting more Islamic, et cetera. Huntington thinks that people are identifying more and more with their cultures and they're turning inwards to their own civilizational roots. [...] [00:14:42] Look at the war between the Christian Armenians and the Muslim Azeris and Azerbaijan. And of course his big example were the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia. This is kind of a marque star of the clash of civilization thesis. Yugos Lavia used to be this Federation of different nations. So you had all kinds of religious and ethnic groups living together in peace under the communist dictator, Tito, but then after Tito dies throughout the eighties, things start to get shaky, these