The Clash Of Civilizations Essay, Research Paper
There are many civilizations around the world. A civilization is the broadest level to which a person belongs and identifies with and must share something like religion, culture, language, race, etc. with the other people of its same civilization. On the past, the want for territory and power expansion was the main cause for wars. Then, after the World Wars, ideologies were the main cause for struggle; Soviet Union- Communism, US- Capitalism. However, the next step on causing wars, as the author and many other people believe will be and already is the clash of civilizations. The differences between civilizations are now causing many problems and in the future will become the main cause for wars.
The author considers there are some basic reasons that explain why the clash of civilizations will become the cause for wars in the future. The first reason is religion. There are several types of religions and each religion has its own beliefs and convictions and its devotes to them are very convinced of what their religion teaches to them. Because of this, differences between religions cause a clash between the beliefs of people and as we know, this has provoked many wars during history. What can be expected on the future is a great clash between Western and Confucian-Islamic religion. Another factor is that because of increasing communications, interaction between civilizations occurs more and more and at the time people are becoming aware of their great differences. Something I also consider very important is the great economic gap between Western and Non-Western countries. This is causing Non-Western countries to feel somehow the necessity to become better than the West and will try through any means to modernize without westernizing in order to become competitive. Besides, this difference is causing resentment toward the West. Something also very important in this problem is the difficulty to end cultural differences. For example, a country can change its ideology and change from communism to capitalism; however, culture is something that cannot be changed. You cannot change people from one religion to another or to change their races to make them common. This is why; a clash between civilizations will be the cause for future wars and will be something very difficult to solve.
Something that has been occurring and that I hadn t noticed is what the author calls the kin-country syndrome ; this is, to place civilization commonality as a factor to become alley of a country in a war and even to aid it in other ways such as economically. A clear example of this is the double standard that the UN is applying. Non-Western countries think this organization is totally Westernized and apply different laws to their kin-countries than to other countries. For example, many claimed that it was not fair to apply so harsh punishment toward Iraq and at the time being very soft with Israel when disobeying UN resolutions.
Today, the west has no competition militarily or economically. The only country that could develop economically without westernizing is Japan. And it is becoming an example for other countries to reinforce their roots and beliefs and to fight through different routes to modernize and become better economically and militarily. However, the West is using IO s, military and economic power, and other means to maintain their civilization over the others and to promote more and more their ideologies. However, most of the other civilizations are very firm on their beliefs and are trying to even help each other in what many believe is the West against the Rest . This is clearly expressed on the military aid between Islamic and Confucian countries. They sell nuclear weapons to each other and also trade technology in order to become a power that could be competitive to the West, but arisen in a very different way.
Because of this, it may be expected that the next great cold war or even violent war may be between the West and Islamic-Confucian states which definitely will never agree to acquire western ideologies. Because of all mentioned before, the author thinks it is impossible the Western idea of creating a unique civilization, but instead believes we will have a great diversity of civilizations that will continue to cause conflicts. I think it is really necessary to find a way to live with each other in a pacific way because if not this may lead us to a WWIII that would definitely mean the end of humanism.
Bibliography
Reserve. The Clash of Civilizations? Pg. 22-49.