Intra Civilization Clash
By Colonel Krityanand Das
The end 80s brought in some great changes in the world. In mid 1988 under Geneva Accord Soviet Army started withdrawing from Afghanistan. And by early 1989 the withdrawal was completed. Under Gorbachev a new air was blowing over the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern and Central Europe.
Glasnost and Perestroika were new names floating with hope of Openness and Reconstruction. Berlin Wall fell like the proverbial house of cards. Soviet satellites states became free independent nations.
Cold war came to an end and Soviet Union disintegrated by 1991.
It was a triumph of Western Liberal Democracy and Market Economy and the Human Rights over the Left Authoritarianism of Soviet era, as was the victory of Left Authoritarianism under Soviet over the Right Authoritarianism under the Nazi in mid 40s, during the World War-ll.
Cold War came to an end. A great scholar thought that event in Berlin was so great an event that a feeling prevailed as if the History had come to an end and the Last Man was there without a desire to prove himself greater than the other!
Similar thought had come to the mind of German philosopher Hegel, when Napoleon brought an end to the Prussian Monarchy. Hegel’s modern interpreter Marx went through a similar feeling about the end of history, that would come with the end of all exploitations, on establishment of Communism!
Liberal Democracy, Human Rights and Market Economy would be enough to solve and provide for all human needs which would bring an end to all the human greed’s.
Prof Francis Fukuyama wrote a book ” The End of History and the Last Man” in which he expressed all that has been, expressed above!
For the author it was a triumph of ideology over all sorts of political narrowness. A little short of heaven on earth!
Almost like a rejoinder came a book ” The clash of Civilisations and the remaking of world order” written by author’s teacher Prof Samuel P. Huntington. The new author said that human pride and prejudices were more powerful to follow the guddi- guddi preaching’s of an ideological refinements. That physical distances, geographies, histories, religions, languages that goes into creating cultures have confined humanity into fortified realms of civilisations.
Some highlights of the book could be as given in succeeding paras.
The author divides the world into many groups, Western, consisting of Western and Central Europe, North America less Maxico and Australia & New Zealand. Latin America, consisting of Mexico and South America.
Islamic, consisting of Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Central Asia.
Africa consisting of South of Saharan states.Hindu (India), Sinic (China), Orthodox (Russia) and Japan.
The world in the past interacted vigorously with constant move of merchants and his merchandise, followed by Missionaries and the Mercenaries from time to time. All these created different and dissimilar cultures that provided themes for cooperation’s and occasional conflicts and clashes.
It graphically presents predictions of possible patterns of clashes and cooperation’s among the civilisations. It shows more conflictual relationships West with lslam and Sinic. More conflictual relationships are shown Hindu with Islam and Sinic. Islam and Africa are shown to have more conflictual relationships.
Orthodox is shown to have more conflictual relationships with Islam and Japan.
Sinic is shown to have less conflictual relationships with Islam, Japan and Orthodox. Less conflictual relations are shown between West, Japan, Orthodox, Hindu, Latin America and Africa. Author calls Orthodox, Japan, Hindu Civilisations as Swing Civilisations. Scope of both conflicts and cooperation’s would continue.
Conflicts among core Civilisations would induce global conflicts, but that with fault line states would remain local. Buddhism that exits in countries like SriLanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bhutan and Tibet haven’t been granted any status, leave being called a civilizational one. A multi polar world is predicted.
Book has been critized by eminent scholars over a long period. But it has found favour in the hands of American policy makers. Some feel that it has laid the guide lines for the American relations with China and Muslim world for almost three decades. Some felt that American policy makers needed a Philosophy to cover their atrocities across the world after the Cold War.
Scholars have found many faults and flaws in the hypothesis.
But the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is very much within the Orthodox Civilizational group itself and it qualifies to be called an Intra Civilizational Clash!
President Trump had come up with the idea of an Abrahamic Accord that was to regroup the Christian West, Islamic Middle East and the Jewish Israel under one civilizational umbrella. Some work had been done and both Israel and Saudi Arabia were coming closer.
May be it was to isolate Sinic (China) from the Muslim. Hamas initiated a conflict, likely under the provocations of Iran and China, has now badly jeopardized the Abrahamic Accord Initiatives. Couldn’t this be called another Intra Civilizational Clash with a pinch of salt!
Muscle flexing’s, sabre rattling’s and virtual naval blockades of Taiwan (ROC) by China (PRC) is being so frequently carried out, that chances are there that even a small mishap may lead to a major conflict and clash. Both are Han and part of Sinic civilization. If that happens then another Intra Civilizational Clash is waiting to take place!
Two hot wars that is WW-l and WW-ll followed by a long Cold War, sprinkled with so many short and medium wars, insurgencies and then deadly decades of Islamic terrorism are still fresh in public memories.
And then a ray of hope with an idea of End of History was torn apart by Concept of Clash of Civilisations and now the visible Intra Civilizational Clashes lurking on the horizon! Chaotic dynamism seems to guide the world leadership.
And as if that wasn’t enough, we have now the Climate Change and an angry environment breathing fire and flood across the globe.
It would be much better if world leaders sat together and decided to freeze all conflicts for atleast a decade and put their defence forces to plant trees instead of fighting and the resources that fuel the fires of conflicts diverted toward food, health and education!
And give a chance to the environment to cool down and become comfortable!
