Critically evaluate Samuel Huntington’s claims

Critically evaluate Samuel Huntingtons claims in The collapse of Civilizations? The abrupt end of the glacial struggle meant that the bipolar model of thinking which had rule the sphere of mankind Politics for decades became obsolete. This natural phase conduct to a diversity in thinking in the prove of Inter volumeal Relations dubbed the hundred schools of thinking which led to a wide spectrum of visions close the uncertain future of kind-hearted affairs. whizz of the more prominent visions was the late prof Samuel Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations? published in a 1993 ForeignAffairs article, where he predicted a growing kind of conflict based on differences in heathen, unearthly and historical identity of entities he labelled politenesss instead of the ideologic differences of the Cold War Era. Huntingtons thesis was a Realist retort to Fukuyamas 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man. Fukuyama argued that the post-1991 macrocosm was left with no v iable ideological alternative to liberal land and the belt up market economy predicting a in the buff era of spheric consensus on democracy, Justice, human rights and cooperation. The nation bequeath ontinue to be a central pole of identification, even if more and more nations come to sh ar parkland economic and political forms of organization. i Huntingtons laying claim was that The great divisions among humankind and the dominating generator of conflict result be pagan.Nation states leave behind inhabit as the most effective actors in population affairs that the principal conflicts of global politics will occur amid nations and groups of different civilizations. ii The controversial nature of Huntingtons thesis ensured the arsehole critique by some of his buster 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 h is supporters who saw this as the conformation of Huntingtons predictions nonably the inconsolable contact amid Islam and the western.Huntington begins by describing the historical development of the nature of conflicts in the occidental World from the competition between monarchs and emperors for territorial and mercenary expansion leading to the emergence 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 brain put precedent before by William Lind that these were primarily Western Civil Wars.Labelling World War II, the deadliest armed services conflict in muniment which come to the majority of the worlds nations, as much(prenominal) greatly diminishes the getment and sacrifices made by quite a little across the world. Notably the Soviet compass north which was mainly composed of nations Huntington would regard as get off the ground of a Slavic-orthodox civilization carry on the highest amount of casualties totalling at around 27 millioniv.Later in the paragraph, Huntington writes nations and establishments of non-western civilizations no longer remain the objects of recital as targets of Western colonialism tho Join the West as movers of bill as if to suggest that events occurring in non-western part of the world someway do not constitute as history if they dont involve or pitch a felt up effect upon Western society.Although the leadership of the West in fields such as science, technology and engine room for the larger part in recent centuries is indisputable Jewish philosophy, Hindu mathematics, Muslim astronomy and engineering contributed significantly to he foundations of what we know at present and this shouldnt be undermined. The sharing and borrowing of ideas between the different corners of the world through the millennias thats still going on today suggests a long-term cooperation i nstead of a jolt of civilizations in our 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 surface as hinting at the possibility of a Caribbean and an African ivilization Africa being indeed a unmingled known for its vast diversity of cultivations and traditionsvi. He defines a civilization by what he calls objective elements such as language, history and primarily faith as well as by the subjective self-identification of people.Huntington argues the encroachment of globalization has led to increased levels of fundamental interaction between peoples of different civilizations, which in felon intensifies civilization consciousness and brings to the forefront their cultural differences which unlike ideological and political differences are fundamental and much less changeable nd hence less intimately compromise d. Its clear that people instinctively dissever themselves closely to other(a)s who share common traditions, usance and history I hold the flavor notwithstanding that Huntington downplays the penetration of globalization and focuses on one aspect of its possible consequences.Its not the differences that drive cultural conflict between peoples its the lack of pictureing which in bid creates prejudices and fears. The increased interactions between peoples hand over led to a wider acceptance of and fascination with other cultures, helping us understand why foreign societies live the way they do. Huntington argues Russians cannot produce 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 conclusion to which one feels alienated or recognised by Russian society.Thus the objective elements invoked are not convincingly definitive in determining ones identity a n Englishman may get hold of to convert to Islam while a Chinese citizen in Shanghai may select to learn French as a pastime. Globalization in itself has penetrated the long-standing demarcation lines in global trade of the past politicians ever ncreasingly have to consider the global implications of domestic polity. more than than ever national states around the world are dependent upon each other the United States Demands Chinese goods while mainland China needs the US to buy its goods.Huntington ascribes ideas such as constitutionalism, human rights, the rule of law, shoetree markets and democracy as Western inefficient to gain a tootnold in other civilizations. He writes Modern democratic political sympathies originated in the West. When it has developed in non-western societies it has normally been the product of the western colonialism or impositionViii. uggesting that somehow peoples of other civilizations may not be able to sustain or examine 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 oecumenical value, contradicting Huntingtons view of its global Western exclusivity. If asked, most Middle-Easterners would prefer the idea of a democratic to authoritarian governancex the limitation of democratic evelopment in the region however is a product of the unstable and unharmonious 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 punctuate shared experiences in European history such as the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the industrial Revolution which in turn separates them from the Orthodox Christians beyond Ce ntral Europexi. Although it is evident that the enveloping(prenominal) proximity of those events has workd Protestants and Catholics more than their Orthodox ounterparts, the close together(predicate) resemblance of Catholic and Orthodox practices and beliefs as opposed to Protestants is however neglected.Huntington consistently appeals to piety 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 frankincense how they would identify themselves. When speaking of the Islamic civilization however, Huntington doesnt seem to make the effort to differentiate between the major denominations of Shia, Sunni and Sufism which have so strongly influenced the historical and especially afoot(predicate) political landscape of the Middle-East.In a hot attempt to warn his fellow Americans of the electric potential threats that their country may face in the post-Cold War environment, Huntington es sentially perpetuated ideas that were dangerous and self-fulfilling. The universe of discourse of a Confucian-Islamic connection that may exist the West described by Huntingtonxii is thus far to be empirically verified, as the Chinese and US economies remain inter-linked and Barrack Obama moves towards a policy of dialogue in the Middle-East. inclined the history of US foreign policy, legislators would have found Huntingtons paradigm easy to understand and convenient in terms of implementation.A worldview of suspect towards foreign powers that demands the maintaining of war machine superiority in the name of security panders to the powerful military industrial complex in the US. In order to maintain peace, global constancy and have any hopes of dealing with multinational issues such as global warming, policy makers should regard all nations as members of the world community and work closer with supranational organizations such as the UN and WTO in establishing universal law s. The alienation and coercion of other governments will indeed create an atmosphere of antagonism and hostility.