Klare Verses Huntington

From the very beginning of Michael Klare’s book Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on imported Petroleum he makes it clear that he feels Samuel Huntington is wrong even before chapter one. Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations? eventually became a book in 1998, but was originally published in Foreign Affairs in 1993. This original essay is the source for the Huntington’s ideas found in this piece of writing. Huntington has also received some more recent reflection on his work. David Brooks criticized Huntington’s original essay in Huntington’s Clash Revisted for the New York Times in 2011.

Huntinton’s original hypothesis was that the future conflicts in the world would either be almost entirely economic or entirely ideological (1993). This hypothesis lacks enough specificity to be that helpful as it describes two semi-unrelated possibilities, but it is a good starting point. He does acknowledge the role of resources indirectly through his inclusion of economics, but they are not his primary focus. Huntington focuses almost exclusively on cultural differences as the primary source of conflict. Economics seems to be primarily included for the structure of different culture’s economic systems. Huntington marks the end of the Cold War as the beginning of the focuses on non- Western society verses Western society (1993). This may be a little simplistic considering the continuing tensions between just western countries and conflicts between just non-western countries, but this generalization is probably directed primarily at conflicts that Westerns Would Care about the most as this essay is written by a Westerner. Huntington says that “The civilization to which he [a person] belongs is the broadest level of identification with which he [a person] intensely identifies” (1993, p. 24). This divides the Western Countries like North America and Europe from everyone else, which Huntington says is Islam and its many subdivisions (Huntington, 1993).  This works because, collectively, Westerners are more like each other than the people of Islam. These civilizations are defined by religion and will “include Western, Confusion, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, and possibly African civilization” (Huntington, 1993, p. 25). According to Huntington, economic modernization untethered people from local allegiances to some degree so civilizations would be more defined by more specific beliefs systems that are less focused than geography has traditionally allowed. Cultural belief systems are harder to change than economic or political systems (Huntington, 1993). Samuel Huntington recognized the effects of culture on political and economics systems and considered them strong enough to be the major platform for the actions of civilizations, but he does not believe that countries of the world will dissolve into pure civilizations. Overall, Huntington touches on a lot of important things in his essay, but he could not have known about other factors that would change in the future. He wasn’t necessarily wrong about any of his ideas, but some of them had less relevance given certain choices that were made since.

Brooks attempts to point out some of the modern changes that do not mesh well with Huntington’s essay. David Brooks recognizes the significance and truth behind conflict lines between the West and Islam. Huntington’s biggest error. according to Brooks, was that he “ascribed to traits qualities that are determined by context” (2011). Just because a group of people is united by culture does not mean they do not also harbor nationalistic ideals and aspirations. Brooks refers to this as having “multiple authentic selves” (2011). In other words, Huntington was too specific in his reasoning and generalized certain divisions between groups. In today’s global society, probably the hardest part of Huntington’s work to identify with is the linear nature he gives history (Brooks, 2011). History does not go in a straight predictable line; there are just too many things going on and too many factors that all effect one another. Even more to the point are current trends in globalization. So many people can communicate and collaborate so quickly now that the lines of every culture and country have been blurred. Huntington describes a “fault line between Western and Islamic civilizations” known as the “Velvet Curtain of culture”, but this does not exist in the same way it has in the past (Huntington, 1993).  There is no longer any perfect dividing line because interactions among countries are less about local boarders in some ways then they used to. An example of this is the United State’s military presence all over the world. U.S. bases and economic corporations do not stay within the boarders of there own countries; they go wherever their primary interests lie.

Huntington and Klare do agree on some things. As Huntington says, “the West promotes its economic interests and impose on other nations the economic policies it thinks appropriate” (Huntington, 1993, p.39). Both authors also agree that the U.S. has double standards to suit its interests in the best way it sees fit. Huntington’s view is not wrong, but it does generalize a little too much, and there are parts of the picture that Huntington could not have foreseen.

In the end both authors are right about parts of there arguments, but Klare gets to the heart of the problem with his recognition that countries will do anything for the power that comes from resources. This is not surprising considering it has ruled countries foreign policy for ages past in the form of colonialism, imperialism, and globalization. Oil, along with other finite resources, apparently has the power to bring every country to their knees in search for more. It does not matter what cultural system a person has or what “civilization” a person belongs to; the economic systems of the world are defining human existence in ever increasing dependency and that unifying trend knows no boarders.

References

Brooks, D. (2011, March 3). Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations Revisited. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/opinion/04brooks.html

Huntington, S. (1993). The Clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs, 72(3), 22–49.