A brief perusal of Huntington’s works shows a significant concern not only with political development and stability around the world, but also in Western societies.
Huntington’s thesis has aided and abetted liberals with access to firearms; presenting them with suggestions, imperatives and hopes. As such his argument is a classic self-fulfilling prophecy.
What we are seeing along the most conflictual of the civilizational fault lines is not so much a civilizational conflict as a conflict over alternative political systems.
International law remains an under-researched topic in the literature on Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’. This is remarkable since international law itself was born out of such a clash.
Scholars cannot discount Huntington because core parts of his arguments still remain relevant to the narratives of today even if he is incorrect in some places.
Huntington was right to call attention to kin-countries. But the idea of kin-country can only be made useful if it is stripped of its ‘clash of civilizations’ baggage.
Toynbee draws attention away from Huntington’s account, pointing to the role played by political actors in borrowing, appropriating, and manipulating ‘foreign’ concepts.
Even though Huntington was critical of some of the assumptions of structural realism on the sources of conflict and on the role of states, he shared with the realists some important ideas.
This book examines the validity of Huntington’s thesis for the understanding of international affairs and international law in contemporary world politics and discusses its relevance in the public debate.
Critical International Theory is a more commendable theoretical framework than Huntington’s clash of civilizations thesis when examining post 9/11 Afghanistan.
Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing.
E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. Your donations allow us to invest in new open access titles and pay our bandwidth bills to ensure we keep our existing titles free to view. Any amount, in any currency, is appreciated. Many thanks!
Donations are voluntary and not required to download the e-book - your link to download is below.
