Why the West must lower its expectations

Introduction. Samuel Huntington wrote The Clash Of Civilizations in 1996 and it continues to throw light on important geopolitical puzzles of the day. The book's top insights on why the West must lower its expectations and how to understand the world with a civilizational lens👇

Transient divisions of the 20th century. The cold war conflict was the biggest news of its time, but in retrospect we can see how short-lived it was in historical terms. In the 21st century, "much older cultural and religious fault lines" are back.

Huntington calls the western assumption that democratic ideals are exportable worldwide a "universalist pretension." This causes "conflict with other civilizations" who want to maintain their inherited values and institutions.

Huntington describes a "multipolar, multi-civilizational world" but doesn't argue that this world is doomed to never-ending conflict. Peace is possible but it requires "each civilization" to accept that other civilizations will have dominance over their spheres.

Huntington predicted that countries "united by historical circumstance or ideology alone" but with serious cultural diversity will splinter. Sudan is mentioned as a possible site for such a split - and indeed, this happened in 2011 when Sudan broke into 2 different countries.

A big dissonance. The big discord in the West is that its desire to project its cultural and political values abroad co-exists with its "lessening ability to do so." The recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars seem to reinforce Huntington's observation.

Western lifestyles appear built on "consumerism, secularism, and relativism." This doesn't appeal to people moored in different civilizational histories. Their traditions promise something better than imported western "degeneracy."

Accept the goods, reject the values. Huntington doesn't believe that Western values necessarily follow Western goods. He writes it's totally possible for some young men in the Middle East to be "dressed in jeans, drinking Coke, listening to rap" and planning an attack on America.

Huntington's advice to the West is to lower its cultural arrogance and replace its outward-facing missionary zeal with a more inward-facing focus on maintaining "its unique values and institutions within its natural boundaries."

Bottom line. The concept of natural boundaries is crucial. No single ideology or civilization is meant to rule the whole Earth. Western ideas do not resonate with people everywhere, and the West must accept the integrity of civilizational fault-lines for the sake of peace.