[News] Civilizational Unity, Not Clash: How Gaza Challenged Samuel Huntington's Fantasies

[Anti-Imperialist News]

counterpunch.org
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/10/civilizational-unity-not-clash-how-gaza-challenged-samuel-huntingtons-fantasies/>
Civilizational Unity, Not Clash: How Gaza Challenged Samuel Huntington's
Fantasies
Ramzy Baroud
May 10, 2024
------------------------------

Image by Ömer Yıldız.

Identity is fluid, because concepts such as culture, history and collective
self-perceptions are never fixed. They are in a constant state of flux and
revision.

For hundreds of years, the map of the Roman Empire seemed more
Mediterranean and, ultimately, Middle Eastern than European – per the
geographic, or even geopolitical demarcation of today’s Europe.

Hundreds of years of conflicts, wars and invasions redefined the Roman
identity, splitting
<https://yalebooks.yale.edu/9780300074475/theodosius#:~:text=Theodosius%20I%2C%20a%20towering%20figure,of%20the%20late%20Roman%20Empire.>
it, by the end of the fourth century, between West and East. But, even
then, the political lines constantly changed, maps were repeatedly redrawn
and identities fittingly redefined.

This applies to most of human history. True, war and conflict have served
as drivers of change of maps – and of our collective relationship with
these maps – but culture is also shaped and remodeled by other factors.

The permeation of the English language, for example, as a main tool of
communication in the post-Cold War era, resulted in an invasion
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329867863_IMPACT_OF_HOLLYWOOD_MOVIES_IN_THE_EXPANSION_OF_ENGLISH_AS_GLOBAL_LANGUAGE>
by US, and to a lesser extent, British entertainment – films, music,
sports, etc. – of many parts of the world. This incursion has disrupted the
natural cultural development of many societies, widening the generational
gap and redefining social conceptions, values and priorities.

Such a sudden change in cultural flow is hardly conducive to the health of
a nation, whose sense of self is the outcome of hundreds, if not thousands
of years of social conflicts, struggles and, often, growth.

Thus, identity, as a permanent political signifier, cannot be trusted,
since this vague concept is in a constant state of motion and because of
the unprecedented connectivity among peoples all over the world. While such
connectivity can lead to slow ethnocide, which is difficult to detect, let
alone avoid, it can also help beleaguered, oppressed nations fight back.

Once upon a time, such self-serving theories as that of an impending ‘clash
of civilizations’, was all the rage among many US-western academics.

Samuel Huntington’s division
<https://www.amazon.it/Clash-Civilizations-Remaking-Lingua-inglese/dp/1451628978>
of the world into “major civilizations” whose relationships will be defined
by conflict was a convenient addition to a history of such racist tropes,
going as far as the early phases of western colonialism.

Such thinking was propelled forward by political expediency, not rational
thought, as it was marketed heavily following the collapse of the Soviet
order, the first Iraq war and the emboldened western militarism across
Asia, the Middle East and the rest of the Global South.

Linking violent endeavors with such lofty words as civilizations – some
driven by universal values, while others, supposedly by extremism – was a
mere reintroduction of old mantras as Europe’s ‘mission civilisatrice’ and
the American ‘manifest destiny’.

All of it failed, anyway, or, more accurately, could not produce the
desired outcome of keeping the world hostage to the west’s definition of
civilization, identities and human relations, thus the supposedly
inevitable ‘clash’.

Currently, there are signs of a new world that is emerging. It is not one
that is shaped by civilizational quests or impulses, but by the same old
historical paradigm: those who are seeking power that can widen and protect
their economic interests, and those fighting back, seeking freedom,
justice, equality, rule of law and the like.

Those pursuing power can, and are uniting beyond their supposed
civilization inclinations, religious values, racial orientations and
geography.

Even prior to the Russia-Ukraine war, a new cold war was already emerging,
between a declining empire, the US, and a rising one, China.

Both countries, according to Huntington, would serve as textbook examples
of ‘western civilization’ vs. the ‘Sinic civilization’ – lumped with others
under the ‘Eastern world’.

Yet, neither the refined approach of Barack Obama nor the populist style of
Donald Trump succeeded in deepening this presumed civilizational clash
<https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/there-will-be-no-short-sharp-war-a-fight-between-the-us-and-china-would-likely-go-on-for-years/>.
The rest of the world’s relations with China continue to be governed by
economic interests.

Even Washington’s European allies, who rely heavily on Chinese trade and
technological advancements, are not entirely persuaded in joining the trade
war on Beijing in the name of common western values and other such rhetoric.

As for those fighting back, the war on Gaza was an unexpected rallying cry
for unity. Indeed, the war has resulted in a whole new formation of
international relations that hardly existed prior to October 7.

Those speaking out for the Palestinians are neither governed by religious,
racial, geographic or even cultural boundaries. From Namibia
<https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/2/20/namibia-gaza-and-german-hypocrisy-on-genocide>
to South Africa <https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192>, from Brazil and
Colombia to Nicaragua, and from China, to Russia to the Middle East,
solidarity with Gaza is hardly defined from a narrow ‘civilizational’
perspective.

This includes the mass protests across the world, including throughout
Europe and North America, where people from every color, race, age group,
gender, religion and more are united in a single chant: ceasefire now.

Of course, there will always be those invested in dividing us, around
whatever lines that may serve their political agendas, which are almost
always linked to economic interests and military might.

Yet, the global resistance to such delusional academics and chauvinistic
politicians is stronger than ever before. Gaza has proven to be the
ultimate unifier, as it has drawn a line that bonds all of Huntington’s
civilizational groups, not around imminent conflict, but global justice.

*Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He
is the author of five books. His latest is “**These Chains Will Be Broken*
<https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092>*:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the
Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).
His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>
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