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== '''[[National Institute of Standards and Technology]]''' ==
== '''[[The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order]]''' ==
''by  [[User:Paul Wormer|Paul Wormer]], [[User:Milton Beychok|Milton Beychok]] and [[User:John R. Brews|John R. Brews]]
''by  [[User:Howard C. Berkowitz|Howard C. Berkowitz]]


----
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<noinclude>'''''The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order'''''</noinclude><includeonly>'''[[The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order]]'''</includeonly> is an influential and controversial book on [[grand strategy]], [[international relations]] and world futures, by the late political scientist [[Samuel Huntington]]. He does not rigorously define an abstraction of a [[civilization]], but uses examples, although in a ''[[Foreign Affairs (magazine)|Foreign Affairs]]'' article he called a civilization "the highest cultural grouping and the broadest level of cultural identity short of that which distinguishes humans from other species."<noinclude><ref name=Huntington-FA>{{citation
|title= The Clash of Civilizations?
| date = Summer 1993
| url = http://uniset.ca/terr/news/fgnaff_huntingtonclash.html
| journal = [[Foreign Affairs (magazine)|Foreign Affairs]]
| author = [[Samuel Huntington|Samuel P. Huntington]]}}</ref></noinclude>


{{Image|NIST Blue Logo.png|right|168px}}
In the book, the chief premise is <blockquote>that culture and cultural identifies, which at the broadest level are civilization identities, are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration and culture in the post-[[Cold War]] world.<noinclude><ref name=Huntington-1996>{{cite book
The '''National Institute of Standards and Technology''' (NIST) is a  [[United States]] federal agency within the [[U.S. Department of Commerce]].<ref>[http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/general_information.cfm NIST General Information], from the NIST website.</ref> The institute was founded in 1901 with the aim to advance measurement science, standards, and technology. NIST was known between 1901–1988 as the '''[[National Bureau of Standards]]''' (NBS).
| title = The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
| author =  [[Samuel Huntington|Samuel P. Huntington]]
| publisher= Simon & Schuster
| year = 1996
| ISBN-10 = 0684811642
}},p. 20</ref></blockquote> 


NIST has an operating budget of about $1.6 [[Parts-per notation#Summary of large number names|billion]]<ref name=Budget>[http://nist.gov/public_affairs/budget/2010budgetpiechart.cfm NIST Resources Fiscal Year 2010], from the NIST website.</ref> and operates in two locations: [[Gaithersburg, Maryland]],  and [[Boulder, Colorado]]. NIST employs a staff of about 2,900 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 2,600 associates and facility users from academia, industry and other government agencies complement the staff.<ref>[http://www.nist.gov/hrmd/perks.cfm Why Work at NIST?], from the NIST website.</ref>
It takes a darker view than some alternative models, such as that of [[Thomas P.M. Barnett]] in ''[[The Pentagon's New Map]]'',<noinclude><ref name=Barnett>{{cite book
| author = Barnett, Thomas P.M.
| title = The Pentagon's New Map: The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century
| publisher = Berkley Trade
| year = 2005
| ISBN-10 = 0425202399
}}</ref></noinclude> suggesting that major conflict is likely; "avoidance of a global war of civilization depends on world leaders accepting and cooperating to maintain the multicivilizational character of global politics." He bases this on five corollaries to the central theme:
#Global politics is multipolar and multicivilizational; [[modernization (cultural)|modernization]] is distinct from [[Westernization]]
#"The balance of power among civilizations is shifting; the West is declining in relative influence"
#"A civilization-based world order is emerging; societies sharing cultural affinities cooperate with each other; efforts to shift societies from one civilization to another are unsuccessful
#"The West's universalist pretentions increasingly bring it into conflict with other civilizations, most seriously with Islam and China"
#"The survival of the West depends on Americans reaffirming their Western identity and Westerners accepting their civilization as unique not universal"


===History===
He rejects [[globalization]] as being neither necessary nor desirable.</onlyinclude> He specifically rejects the [[The End of History and the Last Man|"end of history"]] model of his student, [[Francis Fukuyama]]:<blockquote>we may be witnessing..the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.<ref name=FukuyamaEnd>{{citation
| author = [[Francis Fukuyama]]
| journal = [[The National Interest]]
| title = The End of History
| volume = 16
| date = Summer 1989
| issue = 4 }}, p. 18</ref></blockquote> Note that Fukuyama has sometimes been strongly identified with [[neoconservatism]], which has this ideal of liberal democracy, although his position keeps evolving.


Article 1, Section 8 of the [[United States Constitution]] grants the [[U.S. Congress]] the power to '''''"To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures"'''''. In June 1836, almost fifty years after the U. S. Constitution was ratified, the [[U.S. Senate]] and the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] adopted a joint resolution establishing a [[U.S. Office of Weights and Measures]] within the [[U.S. Department of the Treasury]]. From that date until March 1901, the Office of Weights and Measures was administered mostly by the [[U.S. Coast Survey]], later renamed as the [[U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey]] (USC&GS), within the [[U.S. Department of the Treasury]].<ref>There were some time periods during which the [[U.S. Army]] and/or the [[U.S. Navy]] administered the USC&GS</ref> [[Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler]], a professor of mathematics, served as the head of U.S. Coast Survey as well as the Office of Weights and Measures from 1836 to 1843.<ref>[http://www.dean.usma.edu/math/about/history/hassler.htm Ferdinand Rudolph Hessler]</ref><ref>[http://www.nist.gov/pml/pubs/sp447/index.cfm Weights and Measures Standards of the United States: A brief history], from the NIST website.</ref>
''[[The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order|.... (read more)]]''
 
''[[National Institute of Standards and Technology|.... (read more)]]''


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! style="text-align: center;" | &nbsp;[[National Institute of Standards and Technology#Literature|notes]]
! style="text-align: center;" | &nbsp;[[The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order#References|notes]]
|-
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{{reflist|2}}
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|}
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Revision as of 19:03, 2 February 2012

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

by Howard C. Berkowitz

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is an influential and controversial book on grand strategy, international relations and world futures, by the late political scientist Samuel Huntington. He does not rigorously define an abstraction of a civilization, but uses examples, although in a Foreign Affairs article he called a civilization "the highest cultural grouping and the broadest level of cultural identity short of that which distinguishes humans from other species."[1]

In the book, the chief premise is

that culture and cultural identifies, which at the broadest level are civilization identities, are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration and culture in the post-Cold War world.[2]

It takes a darker view than some alternative models, such as that of Thomas P.M. Barnett in The Pentagon's New Map,[3] suggesting that major conflict is likely; "avoidance of a global war of civilization depends on world leaders accepting and cooperating to maintain the multicivilizational character of global politics." He bases this on five corollaries to the central theme:

  1. Global politics is multipolar and multicivilizational; modernization is distinct from Westernization
  2. "The balance of power among civilizations is shifting; the West is declining in relative influence"
  3. "A civilization-based world order is emerging; societies sharing cultural affinities cooperate with each other; efforts to shift societies from one civilization to another are unsuccessful
  4. "The West's universalist pretentions increasingly bring it into conflict with other civilizations, most seriously with Islam and China"
  5. "The survival of the West depends on Americans reaffirming their Western identity and Westerners accepting their civilization as unique not universal"

He rejects globalization as being neither necessary nor desirable. He specifically rejects the "end of history" model of his student, Francis Fukuyama:

we may be witnessing..the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.[4]

Note that Fukuyama has sometimes been strongly identified with neoconservatism, which has this ideal of liberal democracy, although his position keeps evolving.

.... (read more)

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