Clash of civilizations

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Clash of Cultures is a political science book by Samuel P. Huntington , subtitled The Reshaping of World Politics in the 21st Century . The American original appeared in 1996 as The Clash of Civilizations (German literally "clash of civilizations") and was the extension of an article of the same name (which was provided with a question mark) that Huntington had published in 1993 in the journal Foreign Affairs . The book contains the hypothesis that there could be conflicts between different cultural areas in the 21st century, especiallybetween Western civilization and the Chinese and Islamic cultural areas. The book has been published and translated many times, led to controversial discussions and washeavily criticizedby political scientists from the start.

central message

After the end of the East-West conflict , world politics had become multipolar and multicultural ; no longer ideologies, but cultures determined the world order. In order to avoid new global conflicts, the West must also take into account other cultural values. It is a mistake to equate modernization with western culture or westernization. The values ​​of the West would not be recognized as universal values in other cultures . The book states: “The West conquered the world not through the superiority of its ideas or values ​​or its religion (to which few people from other cultures were converted), but rather through its superiority in the use of organized violence. Often times Westerners forget this fact; Non-Westerners never forget them. "

Huntington predicted that the power of the West would "fade" and that non-Western cultures would revive as part of indigenization : The West would remain the most powerful culture into the first decades of the 21st century and thereafter in individual areas such as science and research as well as technological Have a leading role in development. The control over other power - resources will, however, increasingly shift to the core states of non-Western cultures.

Cultural areas and their core states

Huntington's division of the world into cultural spaces

After discussing the representation of cultures or civilizations in earlier scientific theories, such as Arnold J. Toynbee , Oswald Spengler or Fernand Braudel , Huntington names the large contemporary cultures that are mostly dominated by a core state.

  • Sinisch - core state China
  • Japanese - core state and sole state of Japan
  • Hindu - core state of India
  • Islamic - not a core state
  • Slavic Orthodox - core state Russia
  • Western - core states USA and in Europe France , Germany , Italy , Great Britain
  • Latin American - existence as a unified cultural area not clear, no core state
  • African - existence as a unified cultural area is not clear, Ethiopia forms its own cultural area, North African countries belong to the Islamic cultural area. Huntington thinks it is conceivable that sub-Saharan Africa will grow together into one culture, the potential core state of South Africa .

Conflicts between cultures

Fault line conflicts are those belonging between communities, states or groups, the different cultures, according to Huntington. Fault line wars can develop from them , which are sometimes fought within a state. In fault line conflicts, those primarily involved receive support from their cultural relatives, which, if escalated , could lead to core state wars . This danger creates the incentive for the core states of different cultures to contain and resolve fault line conflicts.

However, core state wars could also result from changes in the global balance of power between cultures, independently of fault line wars. The peaceful transition from the Pax Britannica to the Pax Americana was due, in Huntington's opinion, to the close cultural ties between the two societies. The lack of such a cultural affinity between the West and China makes an armed conflict, while not a certainty, more likely.

criticism

Since its publication, the book has received massive scientific criticism for containing a grossly simplistic global formula whose memorability is based on vague terms and whose application to concrete cases is full of contradictions. In addition to the general criticism of the scientific level of the explanations, concerns are primarily directed against its classification of cultures. The criteria for the classification are heterogeneous, in one case they are based on religion, in the other on national borders. In many cases, their application relates more to classic power conflicts over political and territorial control. The assertion of a central cultural dimension of the conflicts is thus unfounded.

The sociologist of religion Martin Riesebrodt (1948 to 2014) drew parallels between Huntington's “clash of civilizations” and the ideology of religious fundamentalism. Huntington's theory that civilizations were ultimately based on an “unchangeable, supra-historical, supra-social core” represented a “pseudo-scientification of fundamentalist ideology” for Riesebrodt. He also stated that Huntington had an undifferentiated, ahistorical, essentialist concept of civilization and religion. Riesebrodt described Huntington's work as "a foreign and security policy manual for American presidents that is dangerous in its simplicity and tendency".

Political scientist Jan Helmig also laments Huntington's simple rhetoric of demarcation and separation: "The clash of civilizations is a prominent example of saving familiar thought patterns and projecting them onto a territorial grid in the face of increasing confusion and uncertainty in the age of postmodernism."

expenditure

  • Samuel P. Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order . Simon & Schuster, New York 1996, ISBN 0-684-81164-2 (English).
  • Samuel P. Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order . Simon & Schuster, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-4516-2716-9 (English).

In German translation (selection)

  • Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century . Europa-Verlag, Munich, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-203-78001-1 .
  • Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century . Siedler bei Goldmann , Munich 1998, ISBN 3-442-75506-9 .
  • Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century . Spiegel-Verlag, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-87763-011-2 .

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations? . In: Foreign Affairs. Summer 1993 (accessed October 14, 2015).
  2. ↑ a b Simone Dietz : Clash of Cultures? About Huntington's thesis . In: Information Philosophy. Issue 3. 2007 (accessed December 28, 2018).
  3. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 68.
  4. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 117 ff.
  5. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 135.
  6. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 37 ff.
  7. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 246 ff.
  8. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition, Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 260 ff.
  9. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 59 f.
  10. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 61.
  11. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 411.
  12. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 333.
  13. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century. 5th edition. Siedler bei Goldmann, Munich 1998, p. 334.
  14. ↑ Martin Riesebrodt: The return of religions. Fundamentalism and the "clash of civilizations". Beck, Munich 2001, p. 29.
  15. ↑ Martin Riesebrodt: The return of religions. Fundamentalism and the "clash of civilizations". Beck, Munich 2001, p. 18.
  16. ↑ Martin Riesebrodt: The return of religions. Fundamentalism and the "clash of civilizations". Beck, Munich 2001, p. 26.
  17. ↑ Jan Helmig: Metaphors in geopolitical discourses. Metaphorical representations of space in the American missile defense debate. Wiesbaden 2008, p. 62.