Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash Of Civilizations

The economic and military strength of the United States is rooted in Europe’s historical conquest for empire. While the European continent’s geographical borders have receded over the last century, its greatest territorial acquisition has come in the expanse of Western cultural and ideological values. The globalization of culture has become an existential issue; furthermore, Western values extol specific ideologies that establish social (individualism vs collectivism), civil (democracy vs. communism) and economic (capitalism vs. socialism) norms. “The Clash of Civilizations” is a postulate by political scientist, Samuel P. Huntington that attempts to provide a rational explanation for post-Cold War conflict: cultural identification. The United

Samuel calls an imposition of Western values, “in the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western : belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous” (Huntington 1996: 21). Modernization will be a powerful tool to build the socio-economic, political and military power of non-Western civilizations, but the instruments of modernization should be used toward peaceful and multicultural aims. Achieving these aims will benefit the citizens of the world and avoid a cultural clash of civilizations.and continued cooperative efforts. This cooperative approach has been largely successful for the European Union. The Cold War era effectively divided the world into three distinct camps: United States/Europe/Western Democratic, USSR/Communist, and Third World. The end of this conflict allowed for a reorganization of the international structure in which cultural identity is the emphasis, “In this new world, local politics is the politics of ethnicity; global politics is the politics of civilizations. The rivalry of the superpowers is replaced by the clash of civilizations” (Huntington 1996: 4). Civilizations, which are generally united by a similar tongue, religion, history, ethnicity and value system are pervasive manifestations of cultural commonality. Huntington defines politics, in part, as a method of self-definition, and civilization as internal and external manifestations of cultural identity, and thus, a principal determinant of conflict. The EU has avoided internal war through the utilization of its convergence criterium and as this structure gains global appeal other nations are seeking to emulate the