Civilizations And The Remaking Of World Order Book Review

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
By Samuel Huntington

Introduction to Sociology
December 1, 2010

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order is a continuation of the 1993 article written by Samuel Huntington. The book gives a new post Cold War order; prior to the Cold War societies were divided by ideological differences. Huntington main thesis argues, “The most important distinctions among peoples are no longer ideological, political or economic but cultural.” New conflicts will occur within the cultural boundaries. Huntington’s book was broken down into five sections each giving a purpose to understanding the new world’s civilizations. Huntington breaks the world down into seven competing civilizations consisting of: Sinc, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western, and Latin. Africa is possible the eighth competing civilization.
To begin Huntington’s argument, he believes that the past paradigms we revert to be ineffective as do not understand the post- Cold War realities.
Huntington begins to develop a new civilization paradigm; this will help to fill the gaps of world’s original ideas. To begin his theory Huntington divides the world into eight major civilizations. The reasons behind developing these eight civilizations are the geographical locations along with the domination of ideas, values and religion. Before 1500 A.D. civilizations were separated only geographically; during 1500 A.D. civilizations began to separate due to values, ideas and religion. Huntington’s idea shows global communications are in the West; this causes much hostility between non-western civilizations. The key to this chapter allows you to understand Huntington’s view on Westernization. Huntington also argues as the world becomes more modern, civilization will accustom their selves as the world
grows. In the beginning of the book Huntington explains how the Western civilization is the most powerful. However, by the second chapter we’ve found the Western civilization is fading. Some argue the West still is in control and conquers technological research and development and military strength. While others argue that the Western civilization is still control and their influence has not shifted. Huntington follows the idea that the Western civilization is on the decline. His views are as follow: the Western decline will be a slow process and will not threaten the worlds power, the power of a civilization is in the people who have are in control and finally, the decline of power does not happen in a straight line it can reverse, pause and speed up. I believe what Huntington means is that nothing is set in stone currently people believe the Western civilization is crumbling while others see no shift in power. Huntington also speaks of the importance of religion in the political world. Religion opens the communication between civilizations and the politics of the world. During the Cold War people identified themselves as aligned or non-aligned. When the Cold War ended people began to have an identity crisis, they began to associate themselves with people of the same ancestry, religious beliefs, languages etc. People began to rally with their groups. Regional organizations began to form at this time such as: Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the North American Fair Trade Agreement and European Union to name a few. Huntington also explains “torn countries” these are the countries that cannot find their own identities and are left in limbo. These countries are Mexico, Australia, Russia and Turkey. Huntington goes on to explain the new structure of civilizations.
The new structure of the civilizations surrounds the core states. The core states are the states that influenced the civilizations with religion, power and values. Some civilizations do not have core states such as the Islamic civilization. Civilization relies on religious teachings. While core states such as France and Germany have strong, military like values to instill upon their civilizations. Huntington goes into great detail describing other civilizations and their relations to their core states. Huntington predicts there will be great clashes between the civilizations. Enemies will form and alliances will colarbrarte. The civilizations point each other faults and weaknesses, using this to try and form alliances with others. The Islamic and Sinc cultures work together to completely destroy the weak Western civilization. Huntington explains in great detail the conflict between the Islamic and Christian religions, pointing out five factors that sparked their issues in the twentieth century. Huntington explains his idea for the reasons conflicts occur between civilizations. He goes on to explain that one major issue is communal conflicts, which means conflicts between themselves states and groups etc. Religion also causes many problems between civilizations; people belief systems are always a sore spot. In my opinion, the biggest conflict would be identity wars. Huntington explains identity wars as conflicts within the civilizations. These are civilizations that are unsure about whom they are; maybe they have no core state, no center to hold them together. This can also dwindle down to lack of a single religion; religion can hold together a civilization. In conclusion, Huntington states that very rarely do these conflicts end without a third party intervention. Huntington continues to explain the fight of power in the Western civilization and then goes to conclude the book with speaking about multiculturalist and monoculturalists. He explains that it is impossible in a world with such a global empire to every be monoculturalist. Mono-culturalist theory means the world adapting to one single culture. While multiculturalist means the world growing into and forming numerous cultures to make every civilization unique. In my opinion, Huntington is impartial to the Western civilization. The Western civilization is the center of the main civilizations, throughout the entire book the Western civilizations has gained and lost power and influence on the rest of the world. But, even at the end of the book the Western civilization still on top yet, fights it’s battle for the power with America. Huntington goes as far as to state that a clash between the Western civilization and America would be “the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order”. In conclusion, the book was extremely informative and gave an interesting insight to the development of civilizations after the Cold War. Another major point that I found extremely interesting was that this book started as an article; which eventually sparked an entire book full of theories. Of all our class lectures the one that relates most to Huntington's theories is socialization. Even more specifically, the agents of socialization. We spoke of how the agents of socialization: family, religion, education, economic, legal and penal systems, mass media, art and culture all effect the humans adaptation to society. Huntington speaks of all these things within his core states. He also says without having most of these tools the civilization will self-destruct. This is the same as the theory of socialization stating you will not be a functioning part of society without influences from the agents. Socialization focuses a huge part on the media and the influence it has on society. I believe this is what Hunting speaking about with multiculturalists and monoculturalists. His key point being, it is impossible for a society to have only one culture. We are society that continues to grow and educate ourselves through the media. I believe the soul purpose of Huntington's book was just that to educate society. Huntington tried to educate society on what is fundamental to the world, what will make you succeed as a civilization and what will make you crumble.