“The Clash of Civilizations” Book Review

Clash of Civilization Outline What is civilization? What has been civilization in the yore? - Babylonians - Assyrians - Egyptian - Greeks - Persian - Roman/Byzantine - Islamic civilization What is meant by the clash of civilization? On what grounds civilization collide with each other? - Religion - Political powers - Land/Resources - Culture

Outline Cont.… Has there been no clash within the civilization? What are existing civilizations? - Modern (Judo-Christian) - Islamic - Hindu - Chinese - Japanese - Latin American - African World War 1,II & Cold War---On what grounds End of history by Fukuyama Huntington Theory Criticism on his work

What is a Civilization? An advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached. Civilization entered the English language in the mid-18th century with the meaning “the act or process of bringing out of a savage or uneducated state.” Origion from latin word civilis-citizen. Three attributes: objective, subjective, and dynamic. Objective elements include language, history, religion, customs, institutions Subjective elements include variable levels of self- identification Civilizations are dynamic; they rise and fall, divide and merge

Civilization and culture Cultural entity Both refer to overall way of life Culture include Customs Traditions Mores Folkways

Past Civilization Mesopotamian 3100 B.C - Somarian and Egyptian Indus 2500 B.C - Harappa and Mohenjadaro Babylonians Assysians Egyptian Greeks Persian Roman/Byzantine Islamic civilization

On what Grounds conflicts occur Religion Political powers Land/Resources Culture World War 1,11, Cold war Fukuyama “End of history” (now the war of ideology is over and there is no rival ideology of liberal democracy). Criticism---terrorism

Huntington Hypothesis World politics is entering a new phase in the wake of the end of the Cold War The “fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be Religious Cultural identities ”.

Conflict in Modern History Conflict in the modern era, for Huntington, has been largely a sequence of; conflicts between princes (what we will study as the “Westphalia system”), then conflicts between nation-states (after the French revolution), then conflicts between ideologies (during the Cold War) Local politics---Ethnicity Global politics of civilization Rivalry of superpower is replaced by the clash of civilization

The Two Levels of the Clash At the micro level, groups clash along the “fault lines” of adjacent civilizations At the macro level, states from different civilizations compete for political and economic power. Conflict manifests itself in two forms: fault line conflicts and core state conflicts.

Core state and fault line conflicts Fault line conflicts are on a local level and occur between adjacent states belonging to different civilizations or within states that are home to populations from different civilizations. Core state conflicts are on a global level between the major states of different civilizations. Core state conflicts can arise out of fault line conflicts when core states become involved. These conflicts may result from a number of causes, such as: relative influence or power (military or economic), discrimination against people from a different civilization, intervention to protect kinsmen in a different civilization, or different values and culture, particularly when one civilization attempts to impose its values on people of a different civilization.

Religion and civilization Important objective element that define civilization Major civilization in the human history identified with world greatest religions Huntington division on religion basis Western    Hispanidad/Latin American    Japanese    Sinic    Hindu    Islamic    Orthodox    African    Buddhist

Reasons for inter civilization conflict Differences between civilizations are more fundamental and enduring than ideological or political differences. Interactions between civilizations are increasing (consciousness and awareness of differences and commonalities). Cold war---perception of interests, power and their ideological preferences (which side are you on). - New world---cultural identity crisis (who are you) (4) Modernization in non-western societies leading cultural resurgence (individual and societal level) spurred by modernization, global politics is reconfigured along cultural lines (similar cultures are coming together).

(continued) Cultural characteristics are less alterable and less easily compromised than political and economic ones. Economic regionalism is increasing, which will increase “civilization consciousness”. Common culture, Huntington argues, may be a prerequisite for economic integration.

Fundamental clash b/w west & the Sinic and Islamic civilization The fundamental clash according to Huntington will be between the west on one side and the Sinic and Islamic civilisation on the other. The conflict along the fault lines between Western and Islamic civilisations has been going on for 1300 years. There are various factors that have contributed in intensifying the Islam- West conflict in the late 20th century.

A surge in population growth in the Muslim countries led to unemployment in these societies and the youth become recruits to Islamic causes. Islamic resurgence- an offshoot of back to the roots phenomenon created culture consciousness among the Muslims more vigorously than at any other time in the history.

Cont...   The West is trying to universalize its values and impose them on other countries including Muslims while relaxing its economic and military muscles but at the same time the West is not realizing the decline in its capability to do so or increase in the power of other societies to resist any such attempts. The demise of the soviet Union has removed the common enemy of both Islam and the west.

Criticism on his Theory First, Huntington said that Islamic and the Sinic civilizations would coalesce together to counter the Western power as the allies and Stalin did against Hitler. But while comparing these two situations he overlooked the basic point that the period of the allies-Soviet pact was the period of ideologies that today is over. Besides this his contention of Islamic- Chinese cooperation negates his very thesis that now there is grouping in the world along cultural lines.

Second M.K Palat observes that the weakest point of clashing civilizations theory is the confusion of civilization as power bloc. The Islamic world as a civilization may be discerned but not an Islamic power conglomerate in the manner of the west or China. Akber S Ahmad said “ The Muslim world seems to be torn between those who i would shake heaven and earth.to get agreen card and become Americans and those who shake heaven and earth to damage and destroy Americans.” So how can we envisage a world in which the whole Islamic world is pitched against the West?

Third Huntington argument is that the modernization process is leading to Islamic revivalism and ultimately contributes to the process of civilization consciousness. Thus why were the relations between Islam and the west stormy in the 11th century when there was no modernization process and thus culture consciousness.

Fourth Huntington himself concedes the fact the fact that there is no core state in the Islamic world. Thus the absence of leadership will be followed by the absence of organization to act in concert against the Western civilisatin.

Fifth many Muslims countries have slid into chaos and internal disturbance and a virtual civil war is going on in these countries between among various factions all of whom claim to be Muslims. These clashes within a civilization undermine Huntington thesis that people sharing same culture are coming together.

Sixth according to Samuel religion is the most significant of all the objective elements defining civilisation. But Bangladesh’s succession from Pakistan was concerned with language and politics and not religion.

Seventh, Amartya Sen in his essay titled Seventh, Amartya Sen in his essay titled. A world not neatly divided attacks Huntington theory by giving the example of movements that involve people without any distinction of culture, language or politics. He cites an example of Anti-globalisation protestors whose movement include all the poor people across borders, regardless of territorial boundaries or any other barrier. Thus shared poverty can also be a motive for people struggling together.

Reasons This struggle between the Western civilization and Islamic civilization is manifested in many styles including: 1. Dominance over the media apparatus and directing them for the benefit of the Capitalist civilization. 2. Dominance over the education syllabi at all its levels in order to spread the Western concepts, distort and fight some of the concepts of Islamic civilization and forge the history of Muslims. 3. Establishing schools and universities directly supervised by Westerners.

4. Sponsoring those whom they call the elite, educated and intellectuals, focusing light upon them and promoting them, so that they become the leaders of thought in the countries of the Islamic world. 5. Funding the educational scholarships and courses in their various types, to choose those suitable to become their intellectual or political agents, or agents i.e. spies. 6. Founding institutions, clubs and centers specialized in spreading their poison, and spending generously upon them.

It is not a Clash of Civilization It is Conflict of Interests: Economic, Political, Military Conflict may be in the name of Culture

Conclusion In a nutshell, Huntington’s theory in which he has envisioned the clash among civilizations to be the climatic point of development of cultural fault lines is riddled with snags and loopholes and we cannot apply this theory in the emerging economically interdependent world.