The Cold War And The Fall Of The Soviet Union - 1991 Words

Following the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, questions regarding what the new world order would began to arise. In the article published in 1993 â€Å"The Clash of Civilizations?†, Samuel Huntington predicts that the conflicts of the new world order would be between civilization and based in culture, rather than in ideology or economics (22). In his paper, he identifies seven (or possibly eight) civilizations that will interact with each other, provided six reasons as to why these civilizations will clash, recognizes the idea that civilizations other than the West are on the rise and makes suggestions as to how the West should act if his initial is to become true. Since the publication of his article over 22 years ago, Huntington†¦show more content†¦Huntington’s argument is essentially that rather than the conflicts in the new world order being economic or ideological, they will primarily stem from cultural sources and that the next phase in wor ld conflict will be between civilizations rather than within them (22). He began his article by defining the nature of civilizations. In doing so, he defines a civilization as â€Å"a cultural entity† and notes that civilizations are â€Å"the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species† (22-23). According to Huntington, the number of people within a civilization ranges that they are â€Å"dynamic; they rise and fall; they divide and merge† (23). Huntington argues that of Arnold Toynbee’s 21 major civilization in A Study of History only 6 of them still exist in the contemporary world. He identifies that the world order will be shaped by the way that the following seven, or possibly eight, civilizations interact: Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, and possibly African (25). After identifying the majo r world civilizations, Huntington presents six major reasons as to why these civilization will clash. For one, the differences that exist between these entities are real and more importantly basic (25). His second argument is essentially that the idea that society is becoming more globalized and that interactions