Clash of Civilizations

The thesis . . .
Clash of Civilizations (1993) first appeared as an
article and then into a book Clash of Civilizations
and the Remaking of World Order (1996)
Central thesis
Culture and cultural identities, which are at the
broadest level are civilizational identities, are
shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration,
and conflict in the post Cold War world
World politics is turning towards multi-polarity
and becoming multi-civilizational
Emergence of a civilization based world order
 Societies are sharing more cultural affinities to
cooperate with each other
 West’s universalism is increasingly threatened by
conflicts with Islamic world and China
Bi-polar world politics during Cold War era
divided the world into three segments politically
In late 1980s and early 1990s the collapse of
communist world also abolished the basis of Cold
War politics
Post Cold War politics – distinctions are not
ideological, economic, or political – they are
cultural and civilisational
Politics is the politics of ethnicity at the local level
and politics of civilizations at the global level.
Post Cold War renditions of culture – divisive as
well as unifying
Separated by ideology comes closer by culture
(Germany)
Unified by ideology are divided by civilizations
Countries with cultural affinities cooperate
economically and politically
International organizations based on states sharing
similar cultural background are more successful (EU)
than those states who differ (SAARC)
Future conflicts will be sparked by cultural factors
rather than economics or ideology
Most dangerous cultural conflicts will be those
which will be fought along the fault lines of
civilizations
End of History
Francis Fukuyama article ‘The End of History’
(1989) turned into a book The End of History and the
Last Man (1992)
Distinction between material world and world of
ideas
Since fascism and communism has ended there
should not be any serious competition for liberal
democracy and the market economy
TINA