Huntington's Clash of Civilizations: Analysis and Critique

1. Quiz • 1. Does Huntington believe that the values of the West are “universal?” • 2. Name a problem Edward Said sees with Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations thesis.

2. Huntington’s Thesis • 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.

3. The Evolution of Conflict • 1. Wars Of Kings • 2. Wars of Nations 1789-1918 • 3. Clash of Ideologies (Fascism/Nazism, Communism, Liberal Democracy) • 4. Clash of Civilizations

4. What is a “civilization?” • A civilization is thus the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species. It is defined both by common objective elements, such as language, history, religion, customs, institutions, and by the subjective self-identification of people. (p.2) • Do the boundaries of Huntington’s civilizations make sense to you? • -What defines each of these civilizations? What role does religion play in defining them? • Are there certain countries or regions that seem misplaced? • Do you identify with your civilization? Is it essential to who you are?

5. Huntington’s “Civilizations”

6. Post-Colonial Secular Nationalism Nationalist mobilization • to throw off foreign domination and take their place in the world of nations • to promote modernization and economic development • religious ideologies and mobilization discouraged and/or suppressed • Non-aligned nations • Examples • Mustafa Kemal Ataturk/ Turkey 1923-38 • Gamal Abdel Nassar Egypt 1956-1970 • Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran 1951-53 • PLO/Palestine Founded 1964 • Jawaharlal Nehru, Congress Party/India

7. The Rise of Religiously Based Politics • Iran Islamic Revolution 1979 • Palestine Hamas forms in 1988, wins parliamentary elections in 2006 • Turkey 2002 election (AKP-Justice and Development Party) • Egypt 2011 First Round of Elections • Freedom and Justice (Muslim Brotherhood) 37% • Al-Nour (Salafi Islamist ) 24% • India BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) (1980—present )Forms first government in 1996. • Russia From the Atheistic Communism to the resurgence of the Russian Orthodox Church/Alliance with Putin • U.S. Rise of the Christian Right Late 70s to present

8. “Border” Conflicts • Former Yugoslavia • Serbia (Orthodox) • Croatia (Western/Catholic) • Bosnia (Muslim) • The “Kin Country” Effect • Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005) 2 million casualties • Nigeria • Al-Qaeda • European conflicts with Muslim Immigrants • Trump/Carson on Muslims, Latin American immigrants?

9. Yugoslav Civil War

10. Why Now? Globalization and the Clash of Civilizations • Questions— • 1. Why are civilizations likely to clash? Why would globalization promote conflict between civilizations? • (pp. 3-6) • 2. What, according to Huntington, is the nature of conflict between “the West” and the “Rest?” • (pp. 13-14) • “The very notion that there could be a ‘universal civilization’ is a Western idea.” (14) What does Huntington mean here? • What does he mean when he says a country can become “modern” but not “Western”? • (pp.20)

11. Would you recommend that our next President read Huntington? Appoint him as an adviser? • 1. How well has he predicted world events? • 2. What are the political implications of accepting Huntington’s view of the world?

12. Edward Said • In both articles, the personification of enormous entities called "the West" and Islam" is recklessly affirmed, as if hugely complicated matters like identity and culture existed in a cartoonlike world where Popeye and Bluto bash each other mercilessly, with one always more virtuous pugilist getting the upper hand over his adversary. Certainly neither Huntington nor Lewis has much time to spare for the internal dynamics and plurality of every civilization, or for the fact that the major contest in most modern cultures concerns the definition or interpretation of each culture, or for the unattractive possibility that a great deal of demagogy and downright ignorance is involved in presuming to speak for a whole religion or civilization. No, the West is the West, and Islam Islam. • Following Said, what might be examples of complexities that Huntington is missing?

13. Reductionist &Essentialist • In fact, Huntington is an ideologist, someone who wants to make "civilizations" and "identities" into what they are not: shut-down, sealed-off entities that have been purged of the myriad currents and countercurrents that animate human history, and that over centuries have made it possible for that history not only to contain wars of religion and imperial conquest but also to be one of exchange, cross-fertilization and sharing. This far less visible history is ignored in the rush to highlight the ludicrously compressed and constricted warfare that "the clash of civilizations" argues is the reality. • Edward Said, 2001 (The Clash of Ignorance)

14. Weaknesses: Promoting a New Cold War To the extent that Huntington’s thesis is adopted by those in power, it may not just describe the world but instead may help shape it. Is an Islamic threat a replacement for the Soviet menace? Are Huntington and Bin Laden two sides of the same coin?