Clash with Reality: “Civilization” and Failed Policy

     Scholars in the many fields of humanities studies provide several different definitions for civilization.  However, the idea and discussion of civilization does not limit itself to universities and political think tanks.  Many people are familiar with the phrase, “the West,” shorthand for Western Civilization, conceived as the nations of Western Europe and the Anglo sphere.  Usually, people think of civilization as a shared super culture between large population clusters, nations being the prime candidate. In this envisioning, culture means shared values, identity and religion.  Samuel Huntington, a popular proponent for civilization study, defines civilization as, “…highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species.” 

 

     Huntington’s definition falls into the trap of ethnocentrism, perhaps the most damning sin of humanities scholars.  He groups together large swaths of people and tries to portray them as cohesive populations with similar goals.  In his Foreign Affairs article, “Clash of Civilizations,” Huntington states there are seven or eight civilizations being: Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and possibly African (Huntington).  This vast oversimplification of human diversity is striking.  Throughout the article, Huntington stresses unavoidable conflict between the civilizations.  Huntington claims that the common culture of Asia is leading the “rapid expansion of economic relations between the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore…”  (Huntington) That quote fails to live up to historical scrutiny, as Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution showed a strong reproach to encroaching Beijing power. China is also increasing its claims in the South China Sea, leading to animosity between China and Indochinese nations. 

In his description of the Islamic World, Huntington seemingly uses Arab and Muslim interchangeably.  Never does he mention Persian Muslims, Kurdish Muslims, African Muslims or the most populous Muslim country, Indonesian Muslims.  All the conflicts he mentioned involving Muslims are either their confrontations with the West, Desert Storm, or the ethnic clashes in former Soviet Bloc nations in the nineties. (Huntington)  Even in the Arab Muslim population, there is a continuing war between the Sunni Islamic State and Syrian and Iraqi Shi’i militias, that being part of an even larger cold war between Shi’i Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.  Soviet collapse better explains ethnic clashes in the former Warsaw Pact states due to political instability and loss of strong state power.

Third instance of, “Clash of Civilizations,” failing to reflect reality is the passage, “…people were alarmed by the possibility of violent conflict between Russia and Ukraine over territory, particularity Crimea…If civilization is what counts, however, the likelihood of violence between Ukrainians and Russians should be low.” (Huntington)  Clearly, civilization is not what counts.  The Euromaidan protests in Kiev during 2013-2014 showed many Ukrainians hostility to increased integration with Russia.  After the collapse of the democratically elected Pro-Russian government due to the protests, an EU/American friendly government came into power.  Soon after, Pro Russian militias, with suspected help by unmarked Russian military soldiers, in Crimea held a referendum whether to remain Ukrainian or petition to join Russia.  The results of the referendum showed 96.77% for Russian integration (RT).  The Ukrainian government and Western nations claimed the referendum illegal and illegitimate.  Months later, Pro-Russians in Eastern Ukraine called for succession, and started a civil war in Ukraine.  The civil war continues as of this writing between Pro West Government forces and Pro Russian separatists, again suspected of direct aid from Russia.

     Unfortunately, many policy makers in America still adhere to this failed idea of human culture.  The former Bush administration widely used Huntington’s ideas for propaganda during its War on Terror, claiming that is a battle of irreconcilable peoples.  Even now, anti-immigrant politicians use these ideas to justify attacks on immigrants, especially Hispanic ones.  They use the claim that conflict is inevitable, that our very civilization is under siege, showing its terrific use for racists to obscure their feelings about the Other.  A proper use for Huntington’s civilizations would be for elementary school, showing children that countries closer to each other have a tendency to be culturally alike.  For a real understanding of how the world works, Huntington’s classifications are grossly inappropriate, as the world is not as white, black or brown as he claims.

Bibliography

Huntington, Samuel. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs (1993): na. Internet. 25 July 2015.

Russia Times. Crimea declares independence, seeks UN recognition. March 17 2014. Internet. 25 July 2015. <http://www.rt.com/news/crimea-referendum-results-official-250/>.