Empire

Samuel Huntington published an essay in 1996 based on foreign affairs and it was called “The Clash of Civilizations.” The essay argued that post-Cold War the world conflicts will not be primarily ideological or economic. The great division among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. He says that nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principle conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. Thus the clash of civilizations will dominate global politics and the fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future. In his argument he says there are no universal civilizations, instead there are cultural blocks that all have their own distinct set of values. According to him, civilizations are the highest grouping of people and they are differentiated by religion, history, language and traditions. Huntington argues that conflict is more likely to happen between civilizations than within them and that cultural identity is more fundamental to human beings than race and ideology. After looking back at some of Huntington’s arguments I am still not convinced that there is a “clash” but I do find this idea to be interesting.

I think that it is easy to look at attacks on the West, like in New York and think that it was more than a coincident. New York is not only the financial center of the West, it happens to be the largest Jewish city as well. One argument is that events such as the US invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, the war between the West and al Qaeda, and the acts of terrorism practiced by extremist and violent branches of Islam amount to the clash of civilizations. The opposing argument is that the clash is more within Islam itself. I agree with this argument and I think that the radical people that support Islam are giving the rest of the people a bad image. People in the West are too quick to call all Islamic people