"Clash of Civilizations:" A Valid Theory?

Examining political behavior from an ideological or cultural perspective is often dismissed as “fluffy” or “irrelevant.” Instead, many international relations theorists prefer to view politics in terms of state interests or power-struggles over political, economic and military resources. I argue here, however, that Samuel Huntington’s theory, as outlined in “A Clash of Civilizations,” proves that ideology and culture can adequately explain state behavior, especially as it pertains to the present and future of so-called “torn-states.”

As Huntington explains, the rise of the West, and the subsequent spread of western ideology and values through the rest of the world, has juxtaposed the “West versus the Rest,” causing many non-western states seek to resist western influences. Other states, however, embrace such western influences and seek to employ a bandwagon strategy to join the West in their rise to power. Turkey, as Huntington points out, exists as the most prominent example of such a torn state, especially as it attempts to gain admittance to the European Union. Arguing that it has met the qualifications to become a member of the EU, Turkey may be viewed as a modernized, western democracy that certainly espouses the basic principles shared among EU members. That Turkey has been rejected by Brussels on each attempt to gain admittance, however, can be best explained in terms of culture and ideology.

Returning to Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone” theory, discussed in lecture, the bonds of civil society are rapidly deteriorating throughout the EU, especially in terms of religion. Christianity has certainly left its mark on European tradition, but the EU has arguably become a secular society. Indeed, the pews of many churches and cathedrals, which once bustled with activity and existed as the main center of community in many European towns, now stand eerily empty on Sunday mornings. As civil society declines in this way, the resulting secularization of the EU seems to clash head-on with the strong Muslim identity that Turkey cannot seem to separate itself from. Already, the clash between European secularization and Islam has manifested itself in controversies such as the prohibition of wearing the Muslim headscarf, the hijab, in public schools throughout France and Germany. Such controversies highlight the challenges in overcoming the fault lines separating these fundamentally different cultures and beg the question: if differences in culture prevent Muslim Turks from integrating into European society at the local level, how can an entire country that arguably belongs to another civilization integrate into another civilization at the global level? Such considerations of culture and ideology explain political behavior (i.e. Turkey's rejection from the EU) that traditional realist perspectives of international relations cannot otherwise account for.