Eurocentrism in Samuel P. Huntington’s Concept of the Clash of Civilisations

• Authors: Mateusz Kufliński

Abstracts

EN

The article is dedicated to an issue of Eurocentrism in American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington’s concept of the clash of civilisations. The arguments presented indicate that Huntington’s concept is pure Eurocentric. I start by mentioning a few of Huntington’s critics (Noam Chomsky, Samir Amin, Arjun Appadurai, and John M. Hobson). The next step includes analysing in detail the “Eurocentrism anatomy” and presenting Eurocentrism as a phenomenon based on two axes, which I call “materialistic” and “epistemological”. In other words, Eurocentrism is a kind of spectrum. Thanks to that, I compare Huntington’s concept with facts from literature embedded in both axes. Apart from other arguments, Eurocentric factors in the clash of civilisations are 1) civilisations in the past, 2) origin of the West, 3) demographic argument, and 4) the downfall of the West. I argue that the clash of civilisations is based on false, Eurocentric assumptions and prejudices.

Keywords

EN

imperialism; neoconservatism; neoimperialism; Eurocentrism; clash of civilisations; Huntington

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Polish Political Science Yearbook
• Year: 2022
• Issue: 3 (51)
• Pages: 125-134

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Mateusz Kufliński

• University of Gdańsk

• https://orcid.org/0000000173953513

References

• Amin, S. (1996). Imperialism and Culturalism Complement Each Other. Monthly Review, 48(2), 1–11.
• Amin, S. (2004). The Liberal Virus. Permanent War and the Americanization of the World. Monthly Review Press.
• Appadurai, A. (2006). Fear of Small Numbers. An Essay on the Geography of Anger. Durham University Press.
• Chakrabarty, D. (2011). Prowincjonalizacja Europy. Myśl postkolonialna i różnica historyczna. Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.
• Chomsky, N. (1993). Year 501: The Conquest Continues. Haymarket Books.
• Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, Germs and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Goody, J. (2006). Kapitalizm i nowoczesność. Islam, Chiny, Indie a narodziny Zachodu. Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog.
• Goody, J. (2009). Kradzież historii. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• Goody, J. (2012). Metals, Culture and Capitalism. An Essay on the Origins of the Modern World. Cambridge University Press.
• Graeber, D. (2017). The divine kingship of the Shilluk: On violence, utopia, and the human condition. In M. Sahlins & D. Graeber (Eds.), On Kings (pp. 65–138). HAU Books.
• Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
• Hickel, J. (2020). Less is More. How Degrowth Will Save the World. Penguin Random House.
• Hobson, J. M. (2004). Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge University Press.
• Hobson, J. M. (2007). Deconstructing the Eurocentric Clash of Civilisations: De-Westernizing the West by Acknowledging the Dialogue of Civilisations. In M. Hall & P. T. Jackson (Eds.), Civilizational Identity. The Production and Reproduction of “Civilisations” in International Relations (pp. 149–165). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hobson, J. M. (2012). The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics. Western International Theory. 1760-2010. Cambridge University Press.
• Huntington, S. P. (2004, March/April). Hispanic Challenge. Foreign Policy.
• Huntington, S. P. (2007). Zderzenie cywilizacji i nowy kształt ładu światowego. Muza.
• Landes, D. S. (2014). Bogactwo i nędza narodów. Dlaczego jedni są tak bogaci, a inni tak biedni. Wydawnictwo Muza.
• Pobłocki, K. (2017). Historia krótkiego trwania. Bęc Zmiana.
• Robbins, R. (2008). Globalne problemy a kultura kapitalizmu. Pro Publico.
• Sahlins, M. (2002). Folk Dialectics of Nature and Culture. In M. Lambek (Ed.), A Reader in the Anthropology of Religion (pp. 93–107). Blackwell.
• Scott, J. C. (2017). Against the Grain. A Deep History of the Earliest States. Yale University Press.
• The New York Review of Books. (1970). A Frustrating Task Samuel P. Huntington, reply by Noam Chomsky. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1970/02/26/a-frustrating-task/
• Wallerstein, I. (2011). The Modern System-World. Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. (Vol. 1). California University Press.
• Wolf, E. R. (2009). Europa i ludy bez historii. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
• Žižek, S. (2021). Kłopoty w raju. Od końca historii do końca kapitalizmu. Wydawnictwo Czarna Owca.

Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/ppsy202220

Biblioteka Nauki

2154736