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Hular Jr., Raul M.

September 11, 2015

Book Report Atty. Djoanivie Junasa

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

Synopsis:

The most meaningful to people are their cultural identity and cultural counts, and their flag
is one of them. Global politics has become a multipolar and multicivilizational. With it becoming
bipolar, the world was branched into three parts. Then, the world that was divided into three was
then changed to eight major civilizations. Maps and paradigms aim to generalize about reality and
understand relationships among phenomena. Then we have 4 paradigms to which explains the new
era of world politics First, harmonious world paradigm was assumed to be when the cold war ends
for it means the conflicts also ended. Second, the paradigm of two world part that tends to divide
people. Then, the statist paradigm which states the behavior of a state when against other states.
And last, the chaos paradigm refers to the conflicts of civilizations.

Human history is the history of civilizations. First, there is a difference between singular
and plural civilizations. Civilization in singular, meaning uncivilized while in plural means being
civilized. Second, civilization is a cultural identity because culture defines its people it includes
their beliefs, views and customs and that what makes a civilization. Next, civilization is the
broadest entity because it is considered the widest coming together of people who share common
culture. Last, identification of civilization before and modern civilization.

Universal civilization is the idea of solidarity among different people who are sharing and
accepting the same values, beliefs, orientations, practices and institutions. Also, almost all people
share the common values; love and friendship are two of the greatest things in the world, that
virtually all wants peace and that killing is an evil. Then, that universal civilization can be refer as
those civilized societies. Lastly, universal civilization is simply the spreading power to influence
of the west.
There are two pictures of the power of the west regarding its relation to other civilization.
First, its overwhelming, success and virtually total dominance over other civilization. Its power
to influence other civilizations culture is strong. Second, contrary to the first one it is the picture
of the declining power of the west. There were events that tells us so, like how the economic power
shifted to Asian countries etc. The development of East Asian countries have been one of the most
important developments in the world. It is almost as being equal to the power of the west. They
successfully modernized and become economically developed sooner than any countries in the
west. On the other hand, Muslim are focusing on their religion as source of identity, power and
development.

With the rise of civilizational groupings are also the rise of the core states, member states
and culturally similar states. The core state or the center state is culturally powerful because the
order will always come here. Also, the core state considers it orders by it cultural kin, the member
states. Thus, providing a support to its cultural kin whenever it needs help. Once the core state will
is not present, the ordering function will be difficult.

With the contacts of civilizations with each other they often do it in antagonistically. In a
small scale, conflicts often rise because of religion since there are many differences in terms of
views, beliefs and particularly the culture. And if we are to look at the bigger picture, it is the west
versus the rest because of the impact of the west to other civilizations. There are two
intercivilizational conflicts; After the Transition war, it is now the fault line wars. First, fault line
wars are distinguish as conflicts among different groups or civilizations within a state. However,
the core state conflict is different for it occurs among major states. The cultural differences between
both sides are what makes the conflicts grow. Also, the impact of these conflict may rose to a
bigger effect like changing the balance of power among civilizations.

Since the west have this big impact to the world and it is considered as the universal
civilization, that made other societies need catch up to them and feel the need to be at least equal
to their power. The west is now renewing its phase out of conflict thus making it mature enough
to avoid conflicts and attain peace instead.
Chapter 1 - The New Era in World Politics

In the first part of this chapter, the topic that was tackled were flags. These flags serve as
symbol to represent a country. Flags are respected in any other ways. Back then flags were used
as an instrument for the transition of change. These changes is what make us now. I remember
when I was in 3rd year high school the Philippine flag, during the flag ceremony had been hung
upside down. No one noticed it until a middle-aged woman panicked saying are you guys saying
that there is a war please fix it immediately. It has been fixed later on. And thats how flags are
important they can mean more than what they may seem.

Now, the world being a multipolar and multicivilizational. First, it was explained that the
world was branched into three parts. With that being said, that world was being divided back then
by the economic and political matters. If there is a division that means theres an absence in
equality and one may stomp over the other. But people changed and they became more cultural
same goes with the world being multicivilizational. For me culture is the essence of a civilization.
Nations, tribes, groups and communities have different culture and that makes them a civilization.

Maps, paradigms, theories, model and concepts are tools to explain phenomena in this
world. These tools can generate facts and be use to understand happenings, events and situations
that are relevant in this world. The first paradigm is, the harmonious world paradigm its a
paradigm that was form from the belief that the end of cold war means the world is now resting to
be harmonious. It is true that a changed happened but not necessarily mean peaceful and
harmonious. This paradigm created an illusion that the war is no more existing maybe because of
the events that made them feel so like the how the regime of communism collapsed. I agree that
assumption like this happens, people tend to create a feeling of being happy once a burden ends,
but what people dont know is that everything that ends means a new beginning will open. And
life is full of possibilities and we dont know what may happen next that maybe something good
will occur again or the opposite of it. And for me, I believe its the balance of nature that if we are
feeling good because of great happenings then it is destined the something unfortunate will follow.
The paradigm of two world part is a paradigm that divides people. The division was made
for the common good. Both sides are on the opposite side hence there is a need for a division. For
example, the North Korea and the South Korea. South Korea belonging to the first world country
and having a modern society while North Korea is totally on the opposite side however is supreme
over nuclear fire power. Since both having much war power, there is a possibility that one might
take down another unlike if a country is poor and its against a country thats rich, the country who
doesnt have enough wealth, political and military power will deprived by the rich country.

The realist theory of international relation, it means that if a states is developing and another
state sees that and it became a threat to them they will attempt to increase the power or ally with
other states for the security of their own state. This theory also explain the behavior of different
states. Also, with the great competition of different countries nowadays regarding different matters
like economic, political and military, it is comprehensible to see countries behave like this.

Another, the statist paradigm states the behavior of a state when against other states, they
tend to ally with other states with similar or common culture and often have conflict with states
with different culture because they more likely to see these states as threat thats why they cant
trust them. States have the tendency to ally with other states with the same culture because there
is already an understanding between the two, this is similar to meeting a new person when you
know that both of you are alike and similar in a way you tend to befriend and talk to her than those
who are not. Correspondingly, threats are define by which the actions and intentions of other states,
and how the affected state will perceive and take it. For example, the actions of China towards the
island of the Philippines which they are claiming, this is a threat to the country for this caused a
big impact and may lead to something bigger than just a feud on those islands.

Lastly, the chaos paradigm refers to the conflicts, breakdown of governmental authorities,
break up of states, spread of terrorism and the number of cases of massacres and murders. As for
me, turmoil of state against states, anomalies in governments and terrorism are somewhat
inevitable. These stuff are what make the states.
Chapter 3 A Universal Civilization? Modernization and Westernization

The first part of this chapter focuses on universal civilization. But what does it mean?
Universal civilization is the idea of solidarity among different people who are sharing and
accepting the same values, beliefs, orientations, practices and institutions. However, the idea of
universal civilization can be expand and broaden as follows; firstly, almost all societies share the
basic values that; love and friendship are two of the greatest things in the world, that virtually all
wants peace and that killing is an evil. For rare instances, some societies do not do so, and thats
why I didnt generalize my examples. Secondly, universal civilizations could be refer to the
civilized societies. As time passes by, society evolved and expand, from primitive society which
also can be called uncivilized society to the modern and contemporized society we have today.
Then, universal civilization could be refer as the Davos culture. The Davos culture is a culture of
elite groups of intelligent people who majored on different sciences, law and business. The
perceptions of these people about individualism, democracy and marker economies may help the
society since they were the people who are experienced and have the knowledge about these
matters. Lastly, universal civilization is simply the spreading power to influence of the west. Even
in the contemporary period, the power of the west to influence is no-joke. In addition, the dominant
culture before were Chinese and Hindu however due to transitions the western influence became
popular. The pop culture, global movie, television, video industries and the goods represents the
triumph of the west.

Language is one of the central elements of culture and civilization same goes with religion.
The rise of universal civilization also means the need for universal language, English.
Communicating is one of the activities thats needed to improve a society or a civilization. It is
needed when there are encounters, contacts and commercial relations with another civilization.
The term intercultural communication means the potentiality of the universal language, English as
one of the way to eliminate the barriers of culture. For instance, if a non-English speaking group
will have a contact with another group, the group who doesnt speak English will have to learn
and cope with it to be able to express themselves to the other group to establish understanding. As
I recall, my sister used to tell me that before China insisted on making the universal language
Mandarin. Random thoughts hit my mind like what would have happened if Mandarin is our lingua
franca, will it make any differences? As I envision it, it will harder for people if ever the universal
language will be Mandarin, just the thought of writing words or sentences in Mandarin is tough
enough. And another, the factor that affected the number of people who speak Mandarin were the
Chinese themselves, the population of China is largest in the world thats why.

Religion, as mentioned earlier, is also one of the central elements of culture and
civilization. The same situation applies to the religion, the rise of universal civilization also means
the need for universal religion. The two major religions in the world are Christianity and Islam.
These two spread so fast to different countries. The need for the universal religions is important
mainly for understanding. If two people are sharing the same religion it already means they are
sharing the same beliefs, customs and orientations that will give them instant connections with
each other.

Modernization is one of the aspect in the emergence of universal civilization.


Modernization is mainly the industrialization, urbanization, higher literacy, education and wealth.
In addition, it is the process of the shift from primitive to modern society the same manner applies
to the change of the attitudes, values, beliefs, knowledge and the culture from traditional to
contemporary.

The thought that modern civilization means western civilizations is untrue because every
civilization started from traditional and the west was not contemporize until a certain time. With
the modernization of the west, three responses rose; the rejectionism, kemalism and reformism.
Rejectionism is the act of rejecting the influence of the west. For example in Japan, they chose to
reject the influence of the west to enhance and develop their own culture. Then, Kemalism is the
act of abandoning or removing the ethnic or indigenous culture for it is not compatible with the
modernization of a civilization. And lastly, reformism the act of combing the modern culture and
indigenous culture. Regardless of the response of non-western civilization to the impact of the
west, they still managed to make a big effect to the world.
Chapter 8 The West and the Rest: Intercivilizational Issues

With the contacts of civilizations with each other they often do it in antagonistically. In a
small scale, conflicts often rise because of religion since there are many differences in terms of
views, beliefs and particularly the culture. And if we are to look at the bigger picture, it is the west
versus the rest because of the impact of the west to other civilizations. As the impact of the west
grow, they think, especially the United States that non-western societies should carry out their
values of free market, democracy, human rights, individualism and rule of law. The west will
always strive to impose their interests to be the worlds interest. The west integrates its interests
especially to the societies it dominates. However, non-western societies noticed the irony of the
west when it comes to their principle and action; that there are hypocrisy, pretensions and double
standards. The west imposes democracy but not if it has Islamic culture. Also, the double standard
works like; there are issues here but not in here. In addition, non-western societies having
independence politically, they want to flee from the economic and cultural domination from the
west. Thats why, Asian countries like Japan, China and South Korea are economically growing
to be equal with the west.

The religion Islam and China were both possess great power in which they think they are
superior over the west. The comparison of both their culture, beliefs and views and those of the
west are increasing and alarming to the point of rise of conflicts. It was mentioned in the book, the
realist theory of international relations which means if a state is growing, and then the other state
sees that, it will be perceived by the other state as threat therefore it will improve its security and
economy by allying with other state. If thats the case the non-western civilizations should come
together and unite to balance the power of the west. Another, though Islam and Sinic civilizations
basically differ the culture, views, beliefs, religion and traditions a high possibility that they can
cooperate and be each others ally because of their interests against the west.

Military capabilities can be the measure of the power of different civilizations. The west
as the dominant civilization in the world means the capabilities to be involved militarily an almost
any part of the world because of their military power. Dont fight the United States unless you
have nuclear weapons this quotation marks the power of United States. However, as for my own
opinion, North Korea can counter the US because of their nuclear fire powers, considering also
that they are a closed country and that they have more than what we may thought. So, I think
nuclear weapons can threaten the Wests power especially the United States.

Terrorism is the weapon of the weak. Because they dont possess military power and
limited violence can be attained. But I barely disagree, though there will be less mass destruction
in terms of war, in contact with your enemies means you are brave unlike those who are in great
distance to fight and use military power.

As the west influence other civilizations, democratization was successful on countries


where Christians and where western influence is big. This is now the priority of the west. However,
non-western civilization are resistant because of again the pressure of the west upon them. Asian
societies are resistant because of their increasing economic wealth and their self-confidence
against the west. But the west were desperate to expand their investments and trades with such
growing economies but these Asian countries see this as violation of their sovereignty. Hence, they
were immune to the pressure the west always put on them whether its democracy or human rights.

The last part of this chapter is about immigration. Immigration is the act of transferring
into another country. Due to the modernization, immigration is easier, cheaper and quicker. The
wests view on immigration is mixed thus its shifting. Because in some part of the west, they are
favor of immigration due to shortage in labor hence resolving it. However, they fear that they are
being invaded because of the numbers of migrants also because they have different culture, religion
and language. In Europe, the common migrants are Muslims making them threat to the country.
Because of the numbers of Muslim they might take over the population of those who are in the
country. The United State is the country of immigrants. I agree. A couple of years ago, I remember
how everyone around me wants to go to America. They want to not just get a job there but to also
live. At a young age, I experienced how the Philippines is crazy to step on the land of America.
On the other hand, one cant blame a Filipino for wishing to get a job in the US the state of the
Philippines is different than the United States.

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