Clash of CivilizationsThe 'Clash of Civilizations' is an controversial article by Samuel P. Huntington in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1993 in which 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. Huntington later expanded this thesis in his 1996 book The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order. These civilizations are mostly divided along religious lines. The main ones he sees are:
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's piece in Foreign Affairs created more responses than almost anyother 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 have very different world views.
It has been pointed out that values are more easily transmited 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.
Others who accept his view of divisions along civilizational lines have attacked the idea that conflict is inevitable arguing that all but a few fundamentalists in each civilization would prefer to coexist amicably.
On certain issues Huntington has appeared prescient, most especillay with the September 11 attacks and the attacks by western states upon Afghanistan and Iraq. On other issues Huntington has not been as correct. 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 so far not come to pass.
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