The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is an extension of the 1993 Foreign

Affairs article written by Samuel Huntington.

Huntington then traces the endless enmities between civilizations that have their roots in the
distant past, as explanations for the current conflicts. With the demise of Soviet Communism,
Huntington tries to discover new types of conflicts and enemies.

Huntington, in his articles says that, before the end of cold war, wars were fought and societies
were divided due to ideological differences, such as a struggle between democracy and
communism. Huntington's main thesis argues that the most important distinctions among people
today are no longer ideological, political or economic, but it is cultural. The great division among
humankind and dominating source of conflict will be cultural. There will be new patterns of
conflict which will occur along the boundaries of different cultures and patterns of cohesion will
be found within the cultural boundaries. He says the fault lines between civilizations will be the
battle lines of the future.
Civilization and culture are related concepts. Culture may be a way of life. A culture that includes
millions of people and has developed complex systems of art, literature, music, social, political and
religious institutions may be called a civilization ( Khaled Hossain). Civilizations may consist of
states and social groups which may be ethnic or religious minorities. Huntington has identified
seven or eight contemporary civilizations in the world. These include the Western (Europe and North
America), the Slavic (Russia and Eastern Europe), the Islamic, the Chinese, the Hindu, the Japanese,
the Latin American, and the African. Civilizations are dynamic and they rise and fall. Many ancient
civilizations that were once glorious and powerful, no longer exist today.

Huntington envisages that the great clashes will occur among civilizations. The main conflict of
global politics will occur between nation and group of civilization.

Why Civilization Will Clash

Huntington says that the world will be shaped to a great extent by the interactions among the
seven or eight major civilizations. There are six reasons why civilizations will clash: first the
differences among civilizations are very basic and fundamental and not real. Civilizations are
differentiated from each other by history, collective memories, culture, language, religion,
traditions, world views etc. differences need not necessarily always lead to conflict and violence.
However, the lengthiest and most violent conflicts, over the centuries have been due to
differences in civilizations. Second, the world is shrinking and globalization and networking has
lead to the intensification of interactions between civilizations. Such increasing interactions will
lead to increasing awareness and consciousness of the other. Increasing communications will
lead to empathy, while lack of communication will lead to animosity. Thirdly, modernization and
westernization have weakened the nation-state and this gap is filled in by religion.
Fundamentalism is said to be increasing in all religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,
and Hinduism, and Islam. Fourh reason is that, the world today is going through unsecularisation
and people are moving towards religion today. Civilization-consciousness is is increased by the
west and going back to religion leads to growth of regional identities such as “Hindunization” of
India and “re-Islamization”, of the Middle East. Fifth, unlike economic and political differences,
cultural differences and characteristics are not alterable and hence more difficult to negotiate.

Lastly, economic regional blocs play an important role today. They are also civilization blocs
such as EU, ASEAN, OAU, NAFTA etc. they are also superimposed by civilization
characteristics and there is an increasing tendency among people to see others as ‘us’ versus
‘them’.

Huntington says that civilizational clashes occur along the fault lines of geographically bordering
nations such as a war between India and Pakistan or between India and China. It will also occur
among states of different civilizations that compete with each other for power and try to
superimpose their values in the rest of the world.

He believes such clashes may arise due to a struggle for power, intolerance for people from a
different civilization or to protect ones’ culture in another civilization, especially when the other
tries to impose its culture and values on them. The clashes may also be to support kinsmen.

The west versus the rest

Huntington identifies three issues that separate the west from the rest. They are the ability of the
west to maintain military supremacy through the non-proliferation of emerging powers, the
promotion of western political values such as human rights and democracy and the restriction of
non-western immigrants into Western societies.

These three aspects are viewed by the non-Western countries, as an attempt by the Western
countries to enforce and maintain their status as the cultural dominion.

Huntington argues that the western idea of universalizing the western values and democracy,
with the help of international institutions will only further provoke other civilizations. Another
important source of intercivilizational conflict could be the shifting balance of power among
civilizations and their core states. He says that there has been a major shift in the recent years in
economic, political and military powers from the west to other civilizations of the world.

He also foresees the rise of China as regional hegemon and the biggest player in the history of
mankind"and expects an alliance or cooperation between Islamic and Sinic cultures to work
against their common enemy, the West. Both these civilizations also share common interests in
areas of human rights, democracy etc that is inconsistent with those of the west.

Huntington says that the iron curtain of the past has been replaced by the velvet curtain between
the Islamic civilization and the west. Thus, the clashes between the West and Islamic civilization
are due to several historical and modern factors. He says that there has been an enormous growth
of the Islamic civilization to such a great extent that it has increased instability on the borders of
Islam and its interiors and fundamentalist movements are becoming more and more popular. He
views this as Islamic revivalism as seen in the first Gulf War and the Iranian revolution of 1979.
This is a consequence of several factors such as the increase in population and the close
proximity of the Islamic civilization to other civilizations such as Orthodox, Western, Sinic and
African.

Huntington also addresses the torn countries, those countries with a reasonable degree of cultural
homogeneity that seek to associate with another civilization. Such countries attempt to make
themselves members of the west, but their history, culture and traditions are non western. Turkey
is considered as a torn country in Europe; its culture, traditions and history are resulting from
Islamic civilization, but it seeks to join the European Union and joined the NATO.

Many observers are of the view that Huntington’s theory is highly inflated and believe that the
reasons for conflicts are simply being ethnicized.

Ethnic identity does not necessarily lead to ethnic conflict. Most relations between nation states
and ethnic groups have been conducted in a very harmonious way. Ethnic groups have adapted
themselves to ethnic states. They may have grievances but they will accommodate each other.
For instance there have been many problems between the Scotts, Welsh and the English, but they
have learned to live with each other in peace. Huntington also says that there have been many
nations which have become modern without becoming western. For example Japan.

He also suggests that the west needs to adjust and come to terms with the increasing power and
influence of the different civilizations in order to remain a global political power. If the west
does not adapt, it will lead to further clashes between the west and other civilizations, which
Huntington describes as "the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order"

Conclusion

Huntington has thus addressed various issues in his article, the Clash of Civilizations; the
concept of civilizations, the question of universal civilization, the changing balance of power,
conflicts between the west and the rest, particularly Islamic civilization, Chinese assertion and
the future of the west and a world of civilizations.

He believes that the global power which had shifted from the East to the West is now shifting
from the North to the South. In his view, in order to avoid civilization wars, core states to refrain
from intervening in conflicts in other civilizations and imposing their values and culture on
others.
Thus Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations provides a clear understanding of civilizations
and the grounds on which future wars will be fought. It is a very good hypothesis that draws
critical thinking and a better understanding of civilization.