The Voice of Mirza Xazar

CIVILIZATIONS DON'T CLASH, BUT THE EXPLOITERS DO

Timur Kocaoglu

[This essay is a part of Timur Kocaoglu's longer paper which will be presented at the upcoming international symposium on "Remembering Bandung: the 50th Anniversary of the Peace & Cooperation Between the Peoples of Asia and Africa" in New Delhi, India]

For sure, Prof. Samuel P. Huntington (Harvard University) is credited and recognized worldwide for his "clash of civilization" theory. It is also claimed that several government leaders around the world do believe in this theory and try to shape their foreign policies along the lines of this theory. Maybe Prof. Huntington has not initially realized or intended the practical implications of his theory which could become a dangerous "radical ideology" which might turn our world into a crazy arena of continuous bloody clashes, human sufferings, and wide-spread hatred among the peoples, regions, cultures and religions across our planet. By just reading the famous article and the following book by Prof. Huntington, the following phrases and passages can shock and alarm many people (All excerpts are from: "The Clash Of Civilizations", Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993, vol. 72, no.3): > THE NEXT PATTERN OF CONFLICT > World politics is entering a new phase, and intellectuals have > not hesitated to proliferate visions of what it will be--the end > of history, the return of traditional rivalries between nation > states, and the decline of the nation state from the conflicting > pulls of tribalism and globalism, among others. Each of these > visions catches aspects of the emerging reality. Yet they all > miss a crucial, indeed a central, aspect of what global politics > is likely to be in the coming years. >.... > It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in > this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily > economic. The great divisions among humankind and the > dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states > will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the > principal conflicts of global politics will occur between > nations and groups of different civilizations. > The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The > fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of > the future ....... > Conflict between civilizations will be the latest phase in the > evolution of conflict in the modern world. > ..... > Civilization identity will be increasingly important in the > future, and the world will be shaped in large measure by > the interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. > These include Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, > Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and possibly > African civilization. The most important conflicts of > the future will occur along the cultural fault lines > separating these civilizations from one another. > .... > The European Community rests on the shared foundation > of European culture and Western Christianity. > .... > The fault lines between civilizations are replacing the political > and ideological boundaries of the Cold War as the flash points > for crisis and bloodshed. > .... > Conflict along the fault line between Western and Islamic > civilizations has been going on for 1,300 years. > ... > THE TORN COUNTRIES > The most obvious and prototypical torn country is Turkey. > Turkey will not become a member of the European Community* > Having rejected Mecca, and then being rejected by Brussels, > where does Turkey look? Tashkent may be the answer. The > end of the Soviet Union gives Turkey the opportunity to become > the leader of a revived Turkic civilization involving seven > countries from the borders of Greece to those of China. Encouraged > by the West, Turkey is making strenuous efforts to carve out > this new identity for itself. > ** > Bernard Lewis comes to a similar conclusion: "We are facing > a mood and a movement far transcending the level of issues > and policies and the governments that pursue them. This is no > less than a clash of civilizations--the perhaps irrational but > surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our > Judeo-Christian heritage, our secular present, and the worldwide > expansion of both." (Bernard Lewis, "The Roots of Muslim > Rage," The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 266, September 1990, p. 6o; > and Time, June 15, 1992, pp. 24-28). > ..... > THE WEST VERSUS THE REST > The west is now at an extraordinary peak of power in relation > to other civilizations. Its superpower opponent has disappeared > from the map. Military conflict among Western states is > unthinkable, and Western military power is unrivaled. > Apart from Japan, the West faces no economic challenge. ("The Clash Of Civilizations" in Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993, vol. 72, no.3) Also available on Internet: www.foreignaffairs.org or www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Politics/Huntington-Clash.htm Aren't the above passages by Prof. Huntington disturbing? He predicts our future as of a severe "clash of civilizations." It really depends on how we perceive our human history of at least two thousand years: Some like Prof. Huntington see only the wars of the past and imagines a "clash of civilizations" is awaiting us in the near future, but some others like myself understand that there always have been very solid "bridges between civilizations" in the past, and these past bridges will keep us safe from those exploiters and blood-thirsty tyrants who would like to turn our small planet into a clash of "manipulations" (not "civilizations" per se). The very basic development of any civilization rests upon the mutual relations and interactions between various peoples, regions, cultures and religions. From the discovery of fire and later wheel in pre-history to our present day new techno- logical innovations of mobile phones, internet, e-mail communication, and new dimensions in genetic biology are the common products of our global world, not of a single region, culture or nation! Our modern world and present civilization owes a lot to the famous "Silk Road" and its heavy trade between China to Central Asia, between India and the Middle East, between Anatolia and Europe, between Africa and Siberia for almost four thousand years! As the scholar Andre Gunder Frank, professor of economics and theorist and one of the founders of the 'Dependence theory,' concludes that there wouldn't be ancient and modern civilizations such old Near Eastern civilizations, Sumerian civilization, Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, Judaic civilization, Christian civilization, Islamic civilization, Greek civilization, Roman civilization, Western civilization, and many other civilizations if the old "Silk Road" and the historical interchanges and inter-dependencies between regions, peoples, cultures, religions and many other things DID NOT exist at least for the last four thousand years of our remembered history! So, the humans have not only "fought wars" in the past, but they "built bridges" to conduct the continuous exchanges of economic, cultural, political, and social natures. Reading the following small booklet by Prof. Frank can open our eyes to, the "Black Hole"s or the "Tabula Rasa"s of our history which was and still is very rich with these kinds of "bridges" that bound our mutual destiny and fate: Andre Gunder Frank, THE CENTRALITY OF CENTRAL ASIA (Amsterdam: VU University Press for Center for Asian Studies Amsterdam, No.8, 1992, 68 pp.), also available on Internet: http://rrojasdatabank.info/agfrank/pubs_new.html#BOOKS These bridges between civilizations are regarded as the "missing link in World History" in our present minds as stated by another historian Prof. Christopher Beckwith in his work "The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia." (Princeton University Press, 1993). Despite the individuals such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Milosevich, Saddam Husain, Osama Bin Ladin, and a few other extremist fýgures who have recently invaded other countries (not to mention those powerful world leaders who are still in power!), there is a promising hope among the thousands of intellectuals and millions of the ordinary peoples of the world every where that "human history" is not entirely made of the "wars and clashes" between regions and peoples, but there have always been "bridges" between civilizations and these bridges are still alive as well as us as humans are capable of building new "bridges between civilizations" when few crazy and exploiter tyrants attempt to destroy those bridges! This lively hope is also expressed by the American historian Prof. Carter V. Findley when he recently wrote: "The concept of civilization basic to the 'clash' theory is also an old-fashioned, essentializing one that underestimates the extend to which each civilization, however much binds it together, is a site of contestation, difference, and inequality of access to its refinements. Diversity and contestation within civilizations consequesntly stand in the way of their clashing as coherent blocs, ..." Prof. Findley accurately concludes that "events like 11 Septemper 2001 do not represent civilizations in any aggregate sense." (Carter V. Findley, The Turks in World History, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 4). The above is a bold reply by Prof. Findley against the views of those individuals (theoriticians and government leaders) who may interpret the terrorist acts of such as 9/11 and the following Gulf War as the "clash of civilizations" between the West and East or between Christianity and Islam! As all the past and present civilizations of this world were created as a result of solid bridges between regions, cultures, religions, and peoples, we should save, repair, renew, reinforce, expand, and multiply those "bridges between civilizations" across regions, cultures, religions, and peoples! The leaders of certain groups, peoples or even countries who conduct small or large scale terrorist acts or even wars and inflict both material and spiritual sufferings on innocent peoples DO NOT BELONG to any known human culture, religion or civilization! They neither represent their groups, peoples, and countries, nor those groups, peoples, countries can be taken accountable for the evil conducts of these "so-called leaders!" Thus, there has never been a "clash of civilizations" in history, but there have been many "clashes of exploiters" yesterday and at the present. And there will be "clash of exploiters" in future, too. No one should, however, frame those "clashes of exploiters" as the "clashes of civilizations." Let's focus on the historically deep co-existence of all peoples, cultures, religions, and civilizations in our global village and not to be fooled by those who attempt to create hundreds of justifications or conditions for covering up their terrorist acts or wars on others. We shouldn't trust those preachers of the "clash of civilizations" by reminding them that there are still strong and solid "bridges" remain between civilizations and we are here to protect, to repair, and to multiply these "bridges" on earth. Timur Kocaoglu Koc University, Istanbul