Critically evaluate Samuel Huntington’s claims

Critically label Samuel Huntingtons claims in The Clash of Civilizations? The abrupt end of the Cold War meant that the bipolar model of thinking which had dominated the sphere of earthly concern Politics for decades became obsolete. This forward-looking phase led to a renewal in thinking in the study of Inter field Relations dubbed the hundred schools of thought which led to a wide spectrum of visions about the uncertain future of ball affairs. One of the more(prenominal)(prenominal) prominent visions was the late Professor Samuel Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations? published in a 1993 ForeignAffairs article, where he predicted a growing pattern of conflict based on differences in cultural, religious and historical individualism of entities he labelled elegances kind of of the ideological differences of the Cold War Era. Huntingtons thesis was a Realist response to Fukuyamas 1992 book, The finis of History and the Last Man. Fukuyama argued that the post-1991 terra f irma was left with no viable ideological alternative to liberal democracy and the free market economy predicting a new era of global consensus on democracy, Justice, human rights and cooperation. The nation depart ontinue to be a central pole of identification, even if more and more nations come to share parkland economic and political forms of organization. i Huntingtons innovate was that The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict allow for be cultural.Nation states will remain as the most powerful actors in world affairs but the principal conflicts of global politics will excrete amid nations and groups of different civilizations. ii The controversial nature of Huntingtons thesis ensured the hard critique by around of his fellow academics for reasons ncluding oversimplification, neglecting contradicting factors and inaccurate predictions. The tragedy of 9/1 1 and the events that followed revived the confidence in his thesis by his supporters w ho saw this as the conformation of Huntingtons predictions notably the inconsolable clash between Islam and the western hemisphere.Huntington begins by describing the historical evolution of the nature of conflicts in the westward World from the competition between monarchs and emperors for territorial and mercantile expansion leading to the offspring of nation states beginning with the French Revolution, to the rise of ideological conflict after the Bolshevik Revolutioniii. His Eurocentric bias is clear early as he quotes and perpetuates an idea put forward before by William Lind that these were primarily occidental Civil Wars.Labelling World War II, the deadliest military conflict in tarradiddle which look atd the majority of the worlds nations, as much(prenominal) greatly diminishes the involvement and sacrifices do by people across the world. Notably the Soviet Union which was universally composed of nations Huntington would attend as part of a Slavic-orthodox civiliza tion free burning the highest amount of casualties totalling at around twenty-seven millioniv.Later in the paragraph, Huntington writes peoples and governments of non-western civilizations no longstanding remain the objects of history as targets of western colonialism but Join the West as movers of history as if to suggest that events occurring in non-western parts of the world somehow do not constitute as history if they dont involve or have a felt effect upon Western society.Although the leading of the West in fields such as science, technology and design for the larger part in recent centuries is indisputable Jewish philosophy, Hindoo mathematics, Muslim astronomy and engineering contributed significantly to he foundations of what we know at once and this shouldnt be undermined. The sharing and borrowing of ideas between the different corners of the world done the millennias thats still going on today suggests a long-term cooperation instead of a clash of civilizations in o ur common pursuit of knowledge.According to Huntington a civilization is the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identityv. He divides the worlds population into seven civilizations as well(p) as hinting at the possibility of a Caribbean and an African ivilization Africa being indeed a continent known for its spacious diversity of cultures and traditionsvi. He defines a civilization by what he calls accusing elements such as language, history and primarily godliness as well as by the subjective self-identification of people.Huntington argues the onset of globalization has led to increase levels of interaction between peoples of different civilizations, which in patch intensifies civilization mind and brings to the forefront their cultural differences which unlike ideological and political differences are of import and much less mutable nd hence less intimately compromised. Its clear that people instinctively identify themselves closely to new(prenominal)s who share common traditions, customs and history I hold the belief how forever that Huntington downplays the keenness of globalization and focuses on one aspect of its possible consequences.Its not the differences that hinge on cultural conflict between peoples its the lack of understanding which in turn creates prejudices and fears. The increased interactions between peoples have led to a wider acceptance of and enthrallment with other cultures, helping us understand why foreign societies give way the way they do. Huntington argues Russians cannot become Estonians and Azeris cannot become ArmenianVii. An Estonian living in Russia will absorb aspects of Russian culture depending on ones willingness, length of stay and the goal to which one feels alienated or accepted by Russian society.Thus the quarry elements invoked are not convincingly definitive in determining ones identity an Englishman may choose to convert to Islam while a Chinese citizen in Shanghai may choose to learn French as a pastime. Globalization in itself has penetrated the long-standing limitations in global trade of the past politicians ever ncreasingly have to consider the global implications of domestic policy. More than ever national states around the world are dependent upon each other the coupled States Demands Chinese goods while China needs the US to buy its goods.Huntington ascribes ideas such as constitutionalism, human rights, the rule of law, tree markets and democracy as Western unable to gain a tootnold in other civilizations. He writes redbrick egalitarian government originated in the West. When it has developed in non-western societies it has usually been the intersection of the western colonialism or impositionViii. uggesting that somehow peoples of other civilizations may not be able to sustain or see the benefits of a form of democratic governance.The people of India would point out that democratic government was formed in their country despite, not because of the Westix. Today more than two- thirds of the worlds governments operate in some form of democracy, which reaffirms the idea that democracy is a universal value, contradicting Huntingtons view of its general Western exclusivity. If asked, most Middle-Easterners would prefer the idea of a democratic to bossy governancex the limitation of democratic evelopment in the region however is a carrefour of the unstable and incompatible political landscape rather than the irreconcilability of the culture.Defining the religious aspects of the Western Civilization, Huntington Justifies the grouping of Protestant and Catholic Christians into a single entity by accentuate shared experiences in European history such as the Renaissance, the judiciousness and the Industrial Revolution which in turn separates them from the Orthodox Christians beyond commutation Europexi. Although it is evident that the closer proximity of those events has influenced Protestants and Catholics more than their Orthodox ounterparts, the closer similitude of Catholic and Orthodox practices and beliefs as opposed to Protestants is however neglected.Huntington consistently appeals to religion as the primary source of cultural identity, rightly so, to a Christian the creeds of their religion have a profound influence on their world view and thus how they would identify themselves. When speaking of the Islamic civilization however, Huntington doesnt attend to make the effort to differentiate between the major denominations of Shia, Sunni and Sufism which have so strongly influenced the historical and especially current political landscape of the Middle-East.In a passionate attempt to warn his fellow Americans of the potential threats that their country may face in the post-Cold War environment, Huntington essentially perpetuated ideas that were dangerous and self-fulfilling. The existence of a Confucian-Islamic connection that may threaten the West described by Huntingtonxii is no netheless to be empirically verified, as the Chinese and US economies remain inter-linked and cheer Obama moves towards a policy of dialogue in the Middle-East. Given the history of US foreign policy, legislators would have found Huntingtons paradigm easy to understand and well-to-do in terms of implementation.A worldview of distrust towards foreign powers that demands the maintaining of military superiority in the name of security panders to the powerful military industrial complex in the US. In order to maintain peace, global stability and have any hopes of dealing with transnational issues such as global warming, policy makers should regard all nations as members of the world community and work closer with world-wide organizations such as the UN and WTO in establishing universal laws. The alienation and coercion of other governments will indeed create an atmosphere of antagonism and hostility.