Civilisations and their discontents: Political geography and geopolitics in the Huntington thesis

Geopolitics

Volumn 12, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 351-374

  Bassin, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVILIZATION; GEOPOLITICS; POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY;

EID: 34250352677     PISSN: 14650045     EISSN: 15573028     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14650040701305609     Document Type: Article

References (129)

1. S. P. Huntington, 'The Clash of Civilizations?' Foreign Affairs 72 (1993) pp. 21-49.
2. S. P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (London: Simon and Schuster 1996), cited hereafter as Clash.
3. In addition to these major statements, Huntington has produced a string of rebuttals and refinements (S. P. Huntington, 'If Not Civilizations, What? Paradigms of the Post-Cold War World,' Foreign Affairs 72 (1993) pp. 186-194
4. S. P. Huntington, 'The West Unique, Not Universal,' Foreign Affairs 75 (1996) pp. 26-48
5. S. P. Huntington, 'No Exit: The Errors of Endism,' in The New Shape of World Politics: Contending Paradigms in International Relations, Foreign Affairs Agenda Series (New York: W.W. Norton 1997) pp. 26-38). His 1996 book nonetheless remains the most comprehensive and multi-faceted statement of his thinking, and the analysis in this article is based largely on it.
6. For books alone which have been produced in response to Huntington, see S. T. Hunter, The Future of Islam and the West. Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence? (Westport, CT: Praeger 1998)
7. D. Frawley, Hinduism and the Clash of Civilizations (New Delhi: Voice of India 2001)
8. S. Rashid (ed.), "The Clash of Civilizations?" Asian Responses (Dhaka: University Press 1997)
9. J. Sacks, The Dignity of Difference. How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations (London: Continuum 2002)
10. R. Herzog, A. Etzioni, and H. Schmiegelow, Preventing the Clash of Civilizations. A Peace Strategy for the 21st Century (New York: St Martins 1999)
11. H. Müller, Das Zusammenleben der Kulturen. Ein Gegenentwurf zu Huntington (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer 1999)
12. V. L. Tsymburskii, 'Zemlia za Velikim Limitrofom: Ot 'Rossii-Evrazii' k 'Rossii v Evrazii,' in Rossiia - Zemlia za Velikim Limitrofom: Tsvilizatsiia i ee geopolitika (Moscow: Editorial URSS 2000) pp. 6-26
13. I. I. Komar, Demokratiia i avtoritarizm v tret'em mire v kontse XX v. Kontseptsiia S.P. Khantingtona i otkliki na nee (Moscow: RAN: INION 1995)
14. B. Seebacher-Brandt and N. Walter (eds.), Kampf der Kulturen oder Weltkultur? Diskussionen mit Samuel P. Huntington (Frankfurt/Main: 1997)
15. U. M. Metzinger, Die Huntington-Debatte. Die Auseinandersetzung mit Huntingtons "Clash of Civilizations" in der Publizistik (Cologne: SH 2000)
16. M. Mokre (ed.), Imaginierte Kulturen - reale Kämpfe. Annotationen zu Huntingtons "Kampf der Kulturen" (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 2000)
17. R. Lee, The Clash of Civilizations. An Intrusive Gospel in Japanese Civilization (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International 2000). This list is far from complete. The corresponding periodical literature is immense.
18. E. W. Said, From Oslo to Iraq and the Roadmap (London: Bloomsbury 2004) p. 120.
19. E.g., I. Buruma and A. Margalit. Occidentalism. A Short History of Anti-Westernism (London: Atlantic Books 2004) p. 147
20. M. Jacques, 'Our Moral Waterloo,' The Guardian (5 May 2004) p. 23
21. P. Bilgin, 'A Return to 'Civilisational Geopolitics' in the Mediterranean? Changing Geopolitical Images of the European Union and Turkey in the Post-Cold War Era,' Geopolitics 9/2 (2004) 269-291.
22. H. Kreutzmann, 'From Modernization Theory Towards the "Clash of Civilizations": Directions and Paradigm Shifts in Samuel Huntington's Analysis and Prognosis of Global Development,' GeoJournal 46/4 (1998) pp. 255-265
23. H. Kreutzmann, 'Kulturelle Plettentektonik im globalen Dickicht: Zum Erklärungswert alter und neuer Kulturraumkonzepte. Internationale Schulbuchforschung,' 19 (1997) pp. 413-423
24. E. Ehlers, 'Kulturkreise - Kulturerdteile - 'Clash of Civilizations': Plädoyer für eine zeitgemässe Entwicklungsforschung,' in U. Holtz (ed.), Probleme der Entwicklungspolitik (Bonn: DSE 1997)
25. M. D. Gismondi, 'Civilisation as a Paradigm: An Inquiry into the Hermeneutics of Conflict,' Geopolitics 9/2 (2004) pp. 402-425.
26. G. Ó'Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics. The Politics of Writing Global Space (London: Routledge 1996) pp. 244, 245
27. A. Chauprade and F. Thual, Dictionnaire de Géopolitique (Paris: ellipses 1998) p. 592.
28. K. Dodds, Geopolitics in a Changing World (Harlow: Pearson 2000) p. 11, emphasis in original.
29. Huntington, Clash (note 2) pp. 29-31.
30. O. Spengler, Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Weltgeschichte (Munich: C.H. Beck 1923 [orig. 1918])
31. A. Toynbee, A Study in History (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1934-1961)
32. M. Weber, Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon 1968)
33. E. Durkheim and M. Mauss, 'Note on the Notion of Civilization,' Social Research 38 (1971) pp. 808-813
34. S. N. Eisenstadt, 'Cultural Traditions and Political Dynamics: The Origins and Modes of Ideological Politics,' British Journal of Sociology 32 (1981) pp. 155-181
35. F. Braudel, History of Civilizations, R. Mayne (trans.) (London: Penguin 1994)
36. W. H. McNeill, The Rise of the West. A History of the Human Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1963)
37. A. L. Kroeber, Style and Civilizations (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press 1973)
38. C. Quigley, The Evolution of Civilizations. An Introduction to Historical Analysis (New York: Macmillan 1961).
39. Huntington, Clash (note 2) pp. 43, 55.
40. Ibid., pp. 21, 253, 47, 66.
41. Ibid., p. 40.
42. Ibid., p. 154.
43. F. Fukuyama, 'The End of History,' The National Interest (Spring 1989) pp. 2-18
44. F. Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (London: Hamilton 1992).
45. Huntington, 'No Exit' (note 2).
46. Huntington, Clash (note 2) pp. 128, 31, 53, 92.
47. Ibid., p. 130.
48. Ibid., p. 291.
49. Ibid., p. 129.
50. Ibid., p. 21.
51. C. Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, G. Schwab (trans.) (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1996 [orig. 1932]).
52. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 129)
53. Ibid., p. 125.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid., p. 21.
56. Frobenius of course was a student of Friedrich Ratzel, and his notion of Paideuma drew significantly on his mentor's concept of Kulturkreis. Thus Huntington is linked, after a fashion, to the tradition of modern human geography (G. Buttmann, Friedrich Ratzel. Leben und Werk eines deutschen Geographen (Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlaggesellschaft 1977) p. 87).
57. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 43.
58. Ibid., pp. 45-46.
59. K. N. Waltz, 'The Emerging Structure of International Politics,' International Security 18/2 (1993) pp. 44-79
60. J. J. Mearsheimer, 'Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War,' International Security 15 (1990) pp. 5-56.
61. Huntington, Clash (note 2) pp. 33-5.
62. Ibid., p. 34.
63. Ibid., p. 35
64. S. Krasner, 'Westphalia and All That,' in J. Goldstein and R. O. Keohane (eds.), Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1993) pp. 235-264.
65. Gismondi (note 6) pp. 406-407
66. R. Rubenstein and J. Crocker, 'Challenging Huntington,' Foreign Policy 96 (1994) pp. 113-128: 115.
67. Huntington, Clash (note 2) pp. 21, 34.
68. Ibid., p. 92n.
69. Ibid., pp. 128, 232.
70. J. L. Gaddis, 'Toward the Post-Cold War World,' Foreign Affairs 70 (1991) p. 101.
71. Huntington, Clash (note 2) pp. 54, 30, 31.
72. Ibid., pp. 21, 28, 125.
73. Ibid., pp. 155, 163.
74. Ibid., p. 135.
75. Ibid., pp. 20, 154-156.
76. Ibid., pp. 136-138; 150-151.
77. Ibid., pp. 28, 245.
78. Ibid., pp. 135, 177.
79. Ibid., pp. 238, 102-103.
80. Ibid., pp. 184-185, 241-144.
81. Ibid., cf. Figure 9.1 on p. 245.
82. Ibid., p. 207.
83. Gismondi (note 6) pp. 407ff.
84. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 129)
85. Ibid., p. 128.
86. Ibid., pp. 156, 207.
87. Ibid., p. 28.
88. E.g., Ibid., p. 126.
89. Ibid., p. 127.
90. Ibid., p. 37, 167.
91. Ibid., p. 174.
92. Ibid., p. 175.
93. Ibid., pp. 255, 183.
94. Ibid., p. 36.
95. Ibid., p. 252.
96. Ibid., pp. 28, 252-254.
97. P. Kennedy, 'The Pivot of History,' The Guardian (16 June 2004) p. 23.
98. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 44.
99. Ibid., p. 69.
100. J. Haslam, 'Geopolitics,' in No Virtue like Necessity. Realist Thought in International Relations since Machiavelli (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2002) pp. 162-182
101. W. Fox, 'Geopolitics and International Relations,' in C. E. Zoppo and C. Zorgbibe (eds.), On Geopolitics: Classical and Nuclear (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff 1985) pp. 15-44.
102. K. Haushofer, Geopolitik der Pan-Ideen (Berlin: Zentral-Verlag 1931).
103. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 163-165.
104. Ibid., p. 155.
105. Ibid., p. 156.
106. Ibid., pp. 135-136.
107. Ibid., p. 177.
108. Ibid., pp. 177-178.
109. Ibid., pp. 130-131.
110. Ibid., pp. 151-152.
111. Ibid., p. 152.
112. Ibid., p. 154.
113. Ibid., p. 212.
114. Ibid., p. 230.
115. Ibid., p. 126.
116. B. Lewis, 'Islamic Revolution,' New York Review of Books (21 Jan. 1988) p. 47, cited in Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 98.
117. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 119.
118. F. Ratzel, Der Lebensraum. Eine biogeographische Studie (Tübingen: Laupp'sche Buchhandlung 1901)
119. W. D. Smith, 'Friedrich Ratzel and the Origin of Lebensraum' German Studies Review 3 (1980) pp. 51-68
120. M. Bassin, 'Imperialism and the Nation-State in Friedrich Ratzel's Political Geography,' Progress in Human Geography 11 (1987) pp. 473-495.
121. Huntington, Clash (note 2) p. 212.
122. Ibid., p. 119.
123. Ibid., p. 252.
124. Mister X [G. Kennan], 'The Sources of Soviet Conduct,' Foreign Affairs 25 (1947) pp. 566-582.
125. R. Russell, George F. Kennan's Strategic Thought. The Making of an American Political Realist (Westport, CT: Praeger 1999) pp. 9, 10, 53, 154.
126. H. Mackinder, 'The Geographical Pivot of History,' Geographical Journal 23 (1904) pp. 421-442
127. H. Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality. A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction (London: Constable 1919).
128. N. Spykman, The Geography of the Peace (New York: Harcourt Brace 1944).
129. L. C. Gardner, Architects of Illusion. Men and Ideas in American Foreign Policy 1941-1949 (Chicago: Quadrangle Books 1970) p. 285; see also Russell (note 90) passim.