4.

Conflict and the muslim world

Huntington foresees that the relation between the West and the
Islamic civilization is going to get worse.
There is a fundamental rupture between the occidental idea of
separating church from the state and the Islamic idea that everything
(government included) should be organized in Allah’s name.
Even though some muslims may see the West as something immoral,
they realize its attractiveness, so that the unique way of protecting
from occidental influence is to demonize it.
“somewhere in the Middle East a
half-dozen young men could well
be dressed in jeans, drinking
Coke, listening to rap, and
between their bows to Mecca,
putting together a bomb to blow
up an American airliner.”
Huntington claims that Occident and Islam are in a state of “quasi war”.
The occurring fightings are just manifestations of a long clash of
civilizations. The few Islamic states that are in friendly relationships
with the West are those that depend on it militarily (Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait).
• Islam, according to Huntington, cannot emerge as a strong power
since it does not have a state to serve as nucleus. There is no one
single country to represent Islam in relations with Occident. The
biggest source of instability is the muslim demographical explosion
that brought millions of furious, unemployed youngsters that are
hostile towards the Occident. But, Huntington notes that this will not
last forever, and if the demographical explosion comes along with
economical development, the conflict will cease to exist.
5. Torn states
Torn states (those that contain the borderline separating civilizations)
have serious issues when it comes to national unity. Sudan, Ukraine,
Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Eritreea represent significant examples. Some
countries belong to one civilization, but its leaders are willing to include
it in another one ( the case of Turkey).
Australia is an excellent example of political weakness in front of the
civilizational power. In 1990’s , its politicians spoke about it as part of
Asia, even though it obviously belonged to the Western world. The
Australian public opinion rejected the idea, the Asian states refused to
see Australia as part of their world.
6. States representing nucleus and civilizations

In the new order, there is no single state interested in global security.

The world, according to Huntington, will be organized according to
civilizational divisions or will not be organized at all; peace will exist as
long as states representing the nucleus of civilizations (USA for the
Occidental world; Russia for Slavic civilization) will dominate their own
sphere.
Europe is divided by a line coming from Finland to the Mediterranean,
thus separating the Christian Europe from the Orthodox and Islamic
part. The Iron Curtain eclipsed this line, but once it collapsed, the
natural civilizational order reemerged. Huntington correctly foresaw
that Greece will have a problematic status inside the EU, since its
orthodox civilization has never rose to the standards of Western world.
7. Possible critics
• The division of the world in civilizations its too simplistic, the world
being more complex.
• Highlighting the power of civilizations, Huntington underestimates the
power of states to form the world.
• The divisions inside the Muslim world (Shia VS Sunni) exclude the
possibility of a single, coherent Islamic civilization.
• The existing differences among civilizations are exaggerated, since for
a long period of time religions succeeded in living in peace.
• Huntington’s focus on culture as a vector of politics is not shared by
many politicians and economists. For instance, Fukuyama claimed
that instead of causing conflict, the adversities rather stimulate
development.
• His analysis served as an intellectual basis for justifying the invasions
of Bush/ Blair in Irak and Afghanistan.
Huntigton’s critics may have their share of truth, but what he spoke
about in 1990’s came true later. The division of Sudan, the Russian
rejection of Occident, the success of right-winged parties with anti-
migrational agenda prove that Occidental electorate feels threatened
by “foreign” cultures and religions.
The idea that globalization is going to naturally erode the differences
between people is rejected by Samuel Huntington. For him, the first
rule of peacefully living in a multicivilizational world is respecting the
spheres of influence of different civilizations. The West should become
less arrogant and more preoccupied with preserving its values and
institutions, rather than exporting them abroad.
8. Brief biographical information
Samuel Huntington (1927) was born in New York. After graduating from
Yale University, Huntington enrolled in the US Army, after which he
received a PhD from Harvard University.
He was one of the founders of Foreign Policy magazine. Sharing
democratic views, Huntington was Hubert Humphrey’s advisor in his
presidential campaign in 1968.
At Harvard, Huntington was one of the Francis Fukuyama’s teachers.