MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

The article by American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008) titled The Clash of Civilisations? first appeared in Foreign Affairs journal in 1993. When extended to book length, which was published three years later, his initial hypothesis of conflicts between civilisations in post-Cold War politics turned from question into statement. An alternative view to the influential ‘End of History’ thesis advocated by Francis Fukuyama, Huntington argues that the end of Cold War ideological bipolarity will lead to inevitable instability, but on the cultural axis. Describing civilisations as the highest rank of cultural identity, Huntington distinguishes eight of the world's major civilisations: Western, Latin American, Islamic, Sinic (Chinese), Hindu, Orthodox, Japanese and African. According to the author, the population explosion in Muslim countries and the economic rise of China would challenge Western dominance. Although he sees Islam as a major threat, as “Islam, [is] a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture”, Huntington also criticises Western belief in the universality of culture, which: “suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous”. Instead of the false universalism of Western culture, he suggests a strategy that, whilst abandoning the idea of universalism, would reaffirm Western identity in order to “renew and preserve it against challenges from non-Western societies.” An example of extreme cultural determinism, which omits any interdependency of cultures, the book has been criticised by various academic writers and is often regarded as a theoretical legitimisation of the aggressive side of US foreign policy.