"The Clash of Civilizations"

Paper Summary:

The paper strives to provide a clear analysis of Huntington's "civilization paradigm", which argues that the fundamental source of conflict in the post-Cold War era will not be primarily ideological or economic, but cultural. The paper looks at the practical application of this paradigm in the case of current world politics and explores the debate as to whether or not the post-9/11 era fits into the pattern designed by Huntington. The paper posits that while the clash of civilizations formulated can indeed by identified in current world politics, things are a little less well-defined and a little more complicated. The paper provides examples to illustrate the fact that while the cultural element cannot be denied or even minimized, political regimes, political traditions and economic factors also play a very important role in current events.

From the Paper:

"The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order written by Samuel P. Huntington is actually an expansion of his 1993 article entitled The Clash of Civilizations. The main aim of the article was in fact to imagine a new post-Cold War world order. The new world order that Huntington puts forward in his article, and then book, is based on the thesis according to which "The most important distinctions among peoples are [no longer] ideological, political, or economic. They are cultural" (Huntington 1993: 21). This means that after the Cold War, societies were no longer divided according to ideological differences - such as the opposition between democracy and communism, for instance - but by cultural differences which will determine new patters of cohesion. Huntington argues that the fundamental source of conflict in the post-Cold War era - to which he refers as "the new world" - will not be primarily ideological of primarily economic, but cultural. Although the actors on the world affairs' stage will remain nation states, the main source of conflict in global politics will be a clash between groups of different civilizations which he entitles "the clash of civilizations.""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Erdem, Engin I. "The 'Clash of Civilizations': Revisited after September 11" Turkish Journal of International Relations 1.2 (Summer 2002). <http://www.alternativesjournal.net/volume1/number2/erdem.htm>
• Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Simon & Schuster, 1998.
• Huntington, Samuel. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs 72.3 (1993): 22-49.
• Kamrava, Mehran. "Political Culture". In Democracy in the Balance: Culture and Society in the Middle East. New York: Chatham House Publishers, 1998: 201-223.

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