THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER [View All]

This is the book written by Samuel Huntington, a Harvard Professor.In this book, the author makes a case for thinking that all future conflicts in the world after the fall of communism will be between civilizations of which he considers the following ones to be major players:Western ( Judeo Christian),Sinic ( Chinese), Islamic,Hindu,African, Latin American, Japanese, Buddhist.His thesis is broken down into the following units:

1.Global politics is now multipolar and multi civilizational. Modernization now has come to mean something different from Westernization.
2.The balance of power among civilizations is shifting.Western civilization is declining in influence while Asian civilizations are on the ascendant.Islam is exploding demographically. Non-Western civilizations are affirming the value of their own cultures.
3.A civilization based world order is emerging.Societies sharing cultural affinities cooperate with each other.
4.The Western World's belief that its core values are universal,e.g. its belief that it can promote Freedom and Democracy, everywhere, is bringing it into conflict with other civilizations,notably Islam and China.
5.The survival of the West depends on accepting that its message is not universal and realizing that the world is multipolar and cooperation between civilizations would be vital to avoid wars.

I found this viewpoint fascinating and have to say that many of its
original premises are being acted out in many theaters, including Iraq,China, Russia, India,Brazil.

One thing that stood out in my mind was that the core states belonging to a certain civilization would form an alliance against another civilization as has happened with India facing off many Muslim nations on the issue of Kashmir. Similarly, it is likely that many Islamic nations will form serious alliances after the Iraq War to ward off similar threats in the future.China and Russia, of course, have started forming an alliance of their own and trying to draw India and Brazil into a group that would unite to stop the Judeo-Christian civilization from gaining dominance.