OPPapers.com

Clash

"Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs" , but because of the fact that no polarisation of ideologies is existing anymore and consequently the ideology as the basis of identification has disappeared, Huntington expects that people will search for their identity in their culture.
Therefore he suggests to exchange the paradigm of the Cold War for a paradigm of civilizations to explain international relationships.
To elucidate his thesis Huntington formulates an arrangement of civilizations, which is the basis of his following argumentation.
Civilizations are cultural unities. These unities consist of different identification levels, but members of one civilization cannot identify with another. Civilizations are the highest ranking of cultural identity.

"The culture of a village in southern Italy may be different from that of a village in northern Italy, but both will share in a common Italian culture that distinguishes them from German villages. European communities, in turn, will share cultural features that distinguish them from Arab or Chinese communities. Arabs, Chinese and Westerners, however, are not part of any broader cultural entity."

Civilizations are defined by common objective elements (language, history, religion, customs, institutions) and the "subjective self-identification of people" .

"People have levels of identity: a resident of Rome may define himself with varying degrees of intensity as a Roman, an Italian, a Catholic, a Christian, a European, a Westerner."

Civilizations are dynamic, have no sharp borders and develop.
Huntington distinguishes between seven or eight major civilizations: Western, Islamic, Confucian, Japanese, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox and Latin American. Huntington is not sure whether an African civilization, excluding the Islamic countries in the north and the Near East, will come into being in the future.*

Not every country can be clearly associated with one civilization....