Samuel P Huntington The Clash Of Civilizations

Western Civilization from 1589 to 1914 had many specific changes that contributed to the structure of the western world before World War I. In the absolutism state sovereignty is embodied in the person of the ruler. Kings were absolute kings and were resposible to no none except god. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries absolute rulers had to respect the fundamental laws of their land. They had to control competing jurisdictions, institutions or groups that were interested in their territory. They regulated religious sects. France of Louis was the classic model of absolutism. Louis XIV, " the sun king," was a devoted Catholic who believed that god had estalblished kings as rulers on the earth. The French language and

Huntington introduced a very controversial and debatable theory of clash of civilizations seems to prove itself correct, with the Western Christianity on one hand and the Orthodox Christianity and Islam on the other. He states that clash of civilization is unavoidable and is predicted in the near future. Today, we can already see those tensions and conflicts between civilizations, due to differences in cultures and traditions. While West is becoming more modern, the Islamic world is going back to its roots. Traditions, language and religion separate two civilizations causing conflicts that lead to violence (Huntigton, 25). This clash was mostly highlighted in 9/11 terroristic attack, which separated the West from the East.

Living demands an identity. A sense of self, which defines who a person is and the means that they exist in the larger macrocosm of the world. The great diversity present on earth derives from the perception of the world that is unique to each individual based on their culture, experience, and impressions. Yet, when variation is compromised, the idea of the uniformity of a global identity spurs the threat of a world conforming to the same ideals that is not exposed to innovation and change. The encroachment of Western powers in the 20th century upon smaller nations demonstrates that globalization spurs arrogance as Western countries, chiefly the United States of America, exert their culture and way of life upon foreign societies. The potential of far reaching development and dominance of individual civilizations world-wide perpetuates instability to cultural sustainability as native lifestyles, traditions, and values cannot withstand external pressures and can deteriorate.

In fact, while the distinctive ideologies and religious groups still exist, the clear boundaries of different civilizations characterized by Huntington have blurred. When this dichotomy to recognize the world as direct confrontations between ideology and culture groups becomes no longer valid, the theory of the inevitability of the clash of civilization, thus, are now flawed, because it is realistically unreasonable, ethically wrong, conceptually biased and historically inaccurate. These problems regarding the clash of civilizations embody a misleading western supremacy shown in Bush’s speech as well as the war on terror on a larger

The civilizations, as identified by Huntington are Sinic [Chinese or Confusious], Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox [Russian], Western [Europe, North American, Australia, New Zealand], Latin American and possibly African. And it is among these groups that share a “common interest and common values” and have a “common culture or civilization” that will lead to more interdependence on members of the same civilization and less dependent on the West. Huntington’s theory is that the West has had [at one time or another] a negative impact on every other civilization, and this has led to a decline of power and influence around the world, especially the Islam civilization. Therefore he predicts, “the fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”

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In the time since the Middle Ages, the West has experienced a number of radical shifts, both politically and ideologically. Each of these shifts has “broken the previous pattern” of cultural norms. But while some have been beneficial, others have caused injustices and suffering. Either way, each of these events has had a dramatic effect on world history, and will likely never be forgotten.

In the argument “Clash of Civilians” written by Samuel Huntington, he states that Western conflicts arose between nation states and ideologies. During the cold war the First, Second, and Third Worlds were divided by their status. Post Cold War it no longer mattered. International policies shift from Western being the main focus to focusing on the West and non-Western civilizations. The differences in civilization when it comes to their culture, customs, religion, ethnicity, have been there for centuries and after the Cold War the politics among states is much less fundamental. Civilization is far more fundamental today and throughout time, civilization identity will continue to be a major component.

politics. Fukuyama uses Huntington as an example and states that many of the Englishmen who

More so than that, Huntington was writing during a time when the United States was the world’s only military superpower which lead to the idea that America should take the lead in establishing the “new world order”, one which would be dominated by the United States and their allies. Because of this, American diplomats and officials were faced with regional, religious and ethnic conflicts that, as Huntington argues, could not be easily solved. During this time the United States were making major decisions about the layout and status of the new world order. It becomes clear that Huntington would believe future conflicts would arise from cultural differences due to previous cultural clashes and that the most powerful country in the world, the United States, was also unable to create solutions for conflicts fueled by cultural differences.

The last aspect to point out in more recent times compared to the crusades and colonialism is the cold war, and how that has and will continue to impact the opposing views of western and Islamic societies. According to Samuel Huntington, the cold war the world was separated into the First, Second and Third Worlds, and he sees divisions are no longer relevant and it being “…far more meaningful now to group countries not in terms of their political or economic systems or in terms of their level of economic development but rather in terms of their culture and civilization.” Distinguishing people in the correct way can help further people understanding of the cultural and educate people enough to not fall into such prejudices and stereotypes. Huntington believed that there will be more conflict between the two societies in time to come. One way he expresses this is by the post-cold war conflict in the Persian Gulf, and Caucasus and Bosnia, now although these were not full-scale war between the civilizations, it still involved many “…elements of civilizational rallying, which seemed to become more important as the conflict continued and which may provide a foretaste of the future.” With that, it is notable to see all the differences that has risen recently between China and the United States in such areas

* Our ability to fight and stir conflict is based upon the notion of a battle between differences. As humans, being different is what sets us aside, it is one of our greatest achievements. Yet this tendency to be different can also be one of our greatest flaws. In order for us to recognize where this conflict derives from, the origins of conflict must first be identified. Throughout our brief history, conflict between the occupants of this world have always been sparked through some facet of difference, these include: religion, ideology, political background, race, social standing,

The current evolution of the world after the Cold War led to the assertion of multiple civilizations; The balance of power among civilizations changes and the relative influence of the Midwest declines, while the non-Western civilizations reaffirm the value of their own culture.

Lately there has been a thought that the difference in Civilizations is another issue that may cause a conflict. Starting from World War I the arguments raised by nations were over an ideology: fascism vs. communism, communism vs. democracy. Some people believe that the next step would be a war based on a cultural sense and religion. Such war would unite people with similar beliefs, views on the world, language, tradition and history. They believe the conflict of the future will occur along the cultural fault lines separating civilizations [1].

Samuel Huntington, the author of the clash of the civilisations believes that the World will eventually divide in accordance with cultural lines, and not political lines. According to Huntington, “the thriving East Asian and Muslim societies will soon challenge Western dominance, and the United States being the World leader will need to reevaluate its policies on foreign invention and domestic immigration to remain a major player.” During the Cold War, the world was divided into the First, Second and Third Worlds. Huntington views these ties as insignificant now and states that the remaking of the World order will be based upon cultural similarity. The different thriving civilisations according to him today are the Western civilisation comprising of North America and Western Europe, the Muslim civilisation, the Orthodox Civilisation led by Russia, the Chinese civilisation, the Hindu civilisation, the Japanese civilisation, the Latin American civilisation and the African civilisation. Huntington’s proposition of the division of the World according to cultural lines has been backed by the use of various examples by him; examples of events that have taken place in the past.