Civilizations, their nature and clash possibilities (c) Rashad Mehbaliyev

Civilizations, their nature and clash possibilities

Rashad Mehbaliyev

MA in Economics, 2nd yearPolitical Economy of Nationalism and Globalism

Types and history of conflicts• Types:

- ideological;- ethnic;- economical and etc.

• History:- wars between kings, emperors, monarchs;- World War I;- Cold War and etc.

• Next?- Cultural conflict!!! [ © Huntington S. P.]

What is civilization?• cultural entity;• some main characteristics at different levels

of cultural heterogeneity;- but person who belongs to one cultural entity

can depend to other cultural entity as well. For example, a person who lives in Baku can define himself as Azerbaijani, Caucasian, Muslim (Christian), Azerbaijani turk (Russian), Asian or Eastern.

• also can include some different nations (e. g. Western, Arab, Turkish civilizations)

Why clash of civilizations is unavoidable?• Differences based on history, language, region, religion,

tradition, culture as they are more fundamental and stable than other differences between people;

• World becomes “smaller”, interactions and awareness of differences between cultures increases;

• Separation from local identities because of economic and social changes;

• West is at the peak of its power; non-West wants to shape the world in non-Western ways rather than Western ways (dual role of West);

• Cultural characteristics are the least compromised by the people;• Economics regionalism increases day by day (e. g. North

American Free Trade Area, Association of South East Asian Nations, Economic Cooperation Organization).

© Huntington (1993)

Levels of clash of civilizations•Macro-level

- competition for power (economic, military and etc.), struggle for taking control over international processes by states;

•Micro-level- struggle for different kind of power

(economic, military, territorial integrity or self-determination) of groups with neighborhood from different civilization.

Different fault lines between civilizations during history (1)

•Cultural divisions of Europe after Cold War:- Western Christianity;- Orthodox Christianity and Islam.

•The same for Yugoslavia:- Croatia and Slovenia;- The rest of former Yugoslavia.

Different fault lines between civilizations during history (2)

Different fault lines between civilizations during history (3)•Interesting fault line between China and

America which is called “new cold war” by Deng Xaioping.

•The same for the USA and Japan (which succeeds to develop by technology using non-Western ways)- Interesting point: EU countries also

develop, but these countries have the same basic values, attitudes with USA, while Japan has different values and culture.

Demography vs. cultural conflict• Population growth:

- High in non-Western countries (especially in North Africa);- Small and even negative in Western countries.

• Increasing migration from non-Western countries to Western countries makes necessary to create administrative rules in order decrease immigration, because fertility rate is:- 1.38 on average for European Union countries;- more than 2 (sometimes even more than 8) in Islam

nations. If EU does not create administrative rules against immigration, the majority population in European Union will be Muslims after just a few decades.

© http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

Supporting participants of conflict

Groups or states belonging to one civilization that involved in conflict with people from different civilizations often support participants of conflict from their civilization:- Gulf War;- Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict over

Nagorno-Karabakh and support from Turkey and Russia to these countries;

- conflict in former Yugoslavia.

Conflicts and violence within the same civilizations?

Huntington (1993): Yes!- Russia and Ukraine over Crimea;- Caucasus;- Balkan.

References (1)• Huntington P. Samuel, 1993, “The Clash of Civilizations”,

Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (summer), pp. 22-49, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20045621, accessed: 24/10/2010, 09:51

• Senghaas D, 1998, “Review Essay: A Clash of Civilizations, An Idée Fixe?”, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 127-132, http://www.jstor.org/stable/425236, accessed: 24/10/2010, 10:07

• Fernandez-Armesto F, 1997, “Reviewed work: The clash of civilizations. By Samuel P. Huntington”, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 73, No. 3, Globalization and International Relations (Jul.), pp. 547-548, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2624272, accessed: 24/10/2010, 10:17

References (2)• Rosecrance R, 1998, “Reviewed work: The clash of civilizations.

By Samuel P. Huntington”, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 92, No. 4 (Dec.), pp. 978-980, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2586367, accessed: 24/10/2010, 10:19

• Jervis R, 1997, “Reviewed work: The clash of civilizations. By Samuel P. Huntington”, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 112, No. 2 (summer), pp. 307-308, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2657943, accessed: 24/10/2010, 10:16

• Marks R, 2000, “Reviewed work: The clash of civilizations. By Samuel P. Huntington”, Journal of World History, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 101-104, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078821, accessed: 24/10/2010, 10:16

• Muslim Immigration, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU