"A Clash of Civlizations" in the context of Post-Cold War and Pre 9/11 Thought

Despite how often it is assigned, discussed and debated, I often feel as though Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations” is constantly being misinterpreted because it is not placed in the context of the time it was written. The most common criticism I hear of Huntington is that his ideas seem to be too general and too obvious, while at the time they were a distinctly divergent from the typical theories of international politics.

“Clash of Civilizations” was written the summer of 1993 when international relations theory was desperately seeking new ideas and new theories to explain not only the end of the Cold War, but to characterize the next era of politics. Most had no answers as the existence of the United States as the hegemon and the sole superpower was unthinkable under previous preconceptions. Huntington stood apart from the mainstream by declaring the end of the “Western civil wars.” He describes all previous major intercountry conflicts as only between Western powers, be it competing monarchs (pre nation state conflicts) or competing ideologies (The World Wars, The Cold War). Huntington asserts that the new era of international relations will be characterized by a clash of civilizations not ideologies or economic conflicts.

Many focus on how Huntington chooses to identify or describe civilizations, by generalizing culture groups but his conception of civilizations can be flexible and does not invalidate his theory. The critical point to Huntington’s argument is not merely that there will be a clash of civilizations, but specifically that the “clash” will be between a Western and non-western civilization. This was divergent from most IR theory because most political scientists (even those studying Comparative Politics, as noted in last week’s Macridis readings) focused on Western powers and possible western conflicts.

While conventional opinion now is that the next great intercountry conflict will be between a Western power and a non-western power, at the time of writing, Huntington’s contention was unprecedented. Furthermore, his ideas gained popularity and made their way into mainstream thought after 9/11, an event that no pre-2001 IR theories had a sufficient explanation for. However, under Huntington’s framework, a tragic event on the scale of 9/11 is no surprise and merely the beginning. Consequently, even if Huntington’s assertions seem self explanatory or self evident now, it is merely because it is viewed in contrast with current thought, not as a time capsule of insight.