The Clash of Civilizations 

And the Remaking of World Order

Samuel P Huntington

The Western Civilization has dominated the world for the last 500 years and till a few years ago, it seemed that there was practically no challenge to the domination of the West.

However, in the 21st century, more particularly, after 9/11, Islamic Terrorism has emerged as a serious challenge to the West. Similarly, the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse and a hegemonistic world power, along with other Asian economic success stories are also proving to be the likely challengers to western domination.

‘The Clash of Civilizations’ written in 1996 has predicted both these forces emerging as threats to the western world. In 1996, both these phenomena were at best in a nascent stage. The uncanny accuracy with which Samuel Huntington has predicted the emergence of these two forces as serious challenges were almost prophetic.

When one reads this book today, he/she is startled by its prescience. It reads as though it was written yesterday.

1500 CE onwards, Renaissance in the western world led to scientific and industrial revolutions which gave the European countries strength, power, and energy to conquer and colonise the world. This resulted in Western ideas, culture, and products dominating minds and markets, the world over. 

Post World War II, the era of the Cold War began, during which, Western values of freedom, liberalism and secularism were challenged by the Soviet Block with its Communist ideology of dictatorship of the proletariat and regimented societies. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Western domination of the global narrative became complete and seemingly unchallenged. 

However, in this hegemony were the seeds of newer challenges as different groups started looking for new hooks to hang their identity. The author says that through globalization, the West globally pushed for modernization to Western standards, without equal emphasis on pushing Western values. As a result, countries like China, Japan, and South Korea progressed rapidly and yet, promoted their own native cultural values, ignoring those of the West. This dichotomy between modernization and westernization led to the emergence of Asian Giants as a civilizational challenge to the West.

Similarly, post-1970, Islamic countries began to modernize, aided by the rise of Petrodollars. With increasing economic clout and urbanization, these societies started becoming more group conscious and started asserting their distinct identity. This led to the western-backed secular regimes in their countries giving way to religious theocracies like in the case of Iran.

The author propounds a theory that for a civilization to survive and grow stronger, it needs cohesion and consciousness. 

Cohesion is a strong Central Authority that he calls Core State, which politically binds them and provides stability, progress, and prosperity.

Before World War I, the Muslim world was largely controlled by the Ottoman empire that acted as a strong Core State under the leadership of Turkey. But after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim World lacked a strong Core State leading to unemployment, poor economic development in non-oil countries, high population growth, and youth alienation.

Consciousness, on the other hand, means strong shared values of culture, language, etc. Muslim World had strong ‘consciousness’ due to their strong religious sensibilities but poor cohesion, pushing the youth to terrorism and extremism.  

On the other hand, a strong cohesion in the form of powerful Core States like the USA, Germany, France, etc.  but they have a poor consciousness due to their policy of multiculturalism, as it dilutes the values that unite Western Civilization. Western Civilization, based on the values of liberalism were further pushed towards multiculturalism out of the guilt trip arising out of Fascism and Nazism as well as colonization.

The author sees multiculturalism as a major threat to the West, particularly the USA. He feels it may lead to the collapse of America’s global dominance. He also feels it will be a threat to the Western values of liberty, freedom, and justice. 

The author, writing only from a western perspective, advocates staying away from multiculturalism and avoiding an embrace of Asian civilization. Instead, he feels the USA should forge closer bonds with Europe to protect the Western Civilization which is under threat. He feels the west needs to stay committed to its roots and not divide the society by promoting multiculturalism. After Huntington wrote the book, the West has even further opened up to multiculturalism, which is now creating huge disturbances and cultural/ civilizational issues in Europe. These incidences have actually vindicated the author’s concerns.

The Clash of Civilizations is one of the most influential books that has shaped political thinking and has probably inspired megatrends in global politics.