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The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
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:
- Global politics is multipolar and multicivilizational; 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"
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.
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