The Clash of Civilizations and The War on Terror. (original) (raw)
Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations' thesis has gained widespread notoriety amongst academic circles for promoting an aggressively neo-conservative discourse. Despite being criticized by a plethora of prominent scholars such as E. Said as being 'a gimmick' that was 'better for reinforcing defensive self-pride than for critical understanding' 1 it gained widespread popularity being widely discussed not only within academic circles but also by the media and politicians across the western and non-western world as it reflected the atmosphere of growing pessimism and insecurity felt at the time amongst US policymaking circles. The Clash of Civilizations thesis argues for a reconceptualization of the International system along the lines of nine civilizations and consequently predicts an over-all increase in conflict driven on by an increase in civilizational awareness amongst like civilizations and an increased awareness of perceived differences among un-like civilizations. This analysis shall seek to evaluate the validity of Huntington's central assertions: 1) the validity of civilizations over states as basic units and 2) the primacy of the inter-civilizational over the interstate paradigm in its ability to illuminate the complexities of contemporary international affairs. After demonstrating the unsuitability of Huntington's culturalist analysis in subsuming the paradigm furthered by realism this analysis shall conclude by examining the meta-narrative constructed by the thesis around the September 11 th attacks and the subsequent war on terror in order to demonstrate the dangers of buying into the discourse furthered by the thesis. Particularly given its immense popularity, the thesis serves only to polarize popular opinion while increasing the capacity for intensifying conflicts or even bringing some about that would not have occurred.
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