The Clash of Civilization (Samuel Huntington Article Review) Essay Example
The article titled the Clash of Civilization written by Samuel Huntington tries to analyze the world after the cold war.
Huntington in his thesis clearly states that the new era of world politics will not be based on conflicts occurring due to ideological or economic clashes amongst states, but rather the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.
Huntington proposes that instead of classifying countries into first, second or third worlds, one should classify countries in terms of their civilization. He defines one as the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have. Characterization of civilization can be seen through language and religion, but the issue arises that people ultimately have to decide to which one they belong to. He notes that civilizations can include nations or people of varying numbers.
Huntington points outs specifically eight civilizations who are potentially at the risk of clashing. He states them to be the Western, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin America, Islamic, African, Hindus, Buddhist, Confucians and Japanese civilizations. He claims that conflicts will occur along the cultural fault lines separating these civilizations from one another. He points out six fundamental reasons for the rise of conflicts between these civilizations *
1. there are fundamental differences amongst civilizations due to history, language, culture, tradition and religion, which he points out has led to violence in the past and potentially will occur in the future as well.
2. People from other civilizations are regularly coming into contact with one another; he gives an example of North African people migrating to France that causes hostility amongst the Frenchmen. Which means that he is imposing the fact that increases in migration of people to other civilizations have increased the consciousness and awareness of differences within civilizations.
3. Economic and social development has demoted nationalism in
Huntington in his thesis clearly states that the new era of world politics will not be based on conflicts occurring due to ideological or economic clashes amongst states, but rather the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.
Huntington proposes that instead of classifying countries into first, second or third worlds, one should classify countries in terms of their civilization. He defines one as the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have. Characterization of civilization can be seen through language and religion, but the issue arises that people ultimately have to decide to which one they belong to. He notes that civilizations can include nations or people of varying numbers.
Huntington points outs specifically eight civilizations who are potentially at the risk of clashing. He states them to be the Western, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin America, Islamic, African, Hindus, Buddhist, Confucians and Japanese civilizations. He claims that conflicts will occur along the cultural fault lines separating these civilizations from one another. He points out six fundamental reasons for the rise of conflicts between these civilizations *
1. there are fundamental differences amongst civilizations due to history, language, culture, tradition and religion, which he points out has led to violence in the past and potentially will occur in the future as well.
2. People from other civilizations are regularly coming into contact with one another; he gives an example of North African people migrating to France that causes hostility amongst the Frenchmen. Which means that he is imposing the fact that increases in migration of people to other civilizations have increased the consciousness and awareness of differences within civilizations.
3. Economic and social development has demoted nationalism in