InternationalStudyEssay.docVIP

Running Head: Huntington versus the Rest Huntington versus the Rest Does the Clash of Civilization thesis explain patterns of War and Conflict since the end of the Cold War? Li, Jason (Han Xun) 301115986 IS 101 Simon Fraser University March 24th, 2011 Huntington versus the Rest Does the Clash of Civilization thesis explain patterns of War and Conflict since the end of the Cold War? Samuel P. Huntington intended to explain the pattern of conflict in the post-Cold War era with the Clash of Civilization thesis. He forecasted that “the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.” (Huntington, 1996, p. 22) Base on this presumption, he further concluded that “[the] states belonging to different civilizations are more likely to fight each other, while those belonging to the same civilization are less likely to fight each other”. (Henderson, 2001, p. 318) It is the sole purpose of this essay to argue against such theory. Not only Huntington demonstrated palpable oversimplification in his logic assumption, many of his empirical examples illustrated inconsistency with his theory. Furthermore, a numerical-approach investigation on this topic showed a contradictive result to Huntington’s theory, and lastly by isolating the cultural factor from the remaining possible explanations, this thesis is doomed to be under attack for its single-dimensional approach. While Huntington rightfully identified cultural difference as the underlying cause for globe conflicts, giving extensive weigh to one single factor is unprecedented. (Henderson, 2001) But he had a reason to do so: “if difference in cultural identity is conflict laden, and identity is largely exclusive and immutable, then one’s identity in a dispute is more important than one’s position in a dispute; therefore, disputes related to identity are less likely to be a