Is the “Clash of Civilizations", as predicted by Samuel Huntington, inescapable?

Robert Fiedler

Dec 2010 · GRIN Verlag

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Essay aus dem Jahr 2009 im Fachbereich Politik - Politische Theorie und Ideengeschichte, Macquarie University, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Indeed, if one reconsiders the devastating terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the war in Iraq some might recognize “evidence of the clash of civilisations occurring, pitting Western and Islamic civilisations against each other” (Rajendram, 2002, p. 217). In order to underscore his rather pessimistic thesis, Huntington provides six causes of conflicts between civilisations such are different views and values, the growing awareness of different civilisations among the people, the weakening of nation states and the replacement of national identity by religion (Huntington, 1993, pp. 25–26). Furthermore, he argues that non-western countries will increasingly turn away from Westernization due to an increasing indigenisation and that “cultural characteristics and differences are less mutable and hence less easily compromised and resolved than political and economical ones” (Huntington, 1993, p. 27). Finally he points to the growth of economic regionalism contributing to the “cohesiveness of various civilisational groups” (O'Hagan, 1995, p. 20). It is because of these reasons that “the most important conflicts of the future will occur along the cultural fault lines separating these civilisations from one another” (Huntington, 1993, p. 25). Huntington not only provided a prediction model for future conflicts, moreover he intends to introduce a new superior paradigm to the realist paradigm (Huntington, 1996, p. 34). There are only few theoretical models in the recent history of International Relations that received such a plethora of multidisciplinary response as the “Clash of Civilisations?” did. The intention of this paper is not to give a comprehensive review of the arguments for or against the “Clash of Civilisations?” nor will it refute the thesis of Huntington. Rather, this paper will analyze if the clash of civilisations as predicted by Samuel Huntington is necessarily inevitable or if the existing international structures can help to avoid this pessimistic prediction. In order to find a conclusion, this paper is separated in two sections. First it will outline major flaws and imprecise fundamentals in Huntington’s argumentation and thereby demonstrate that theory-immanent flaws do not support the prediction of a clash of civilisations. In a second section, this paper argues that multilateralism will prevent a clash of civilisation in order to provide a more optimistic view.