decline of western hegemony and realignment of cultures

Huntington argues that with the decline in Western political hegemony in the world, the non-West will try to form into new, often cultural alliances to confront the West in politics and matters regarding globalization. Despite the decline of its power, the West tries to impose its own values, etc., on the rest of the world in globalization, and defend its interests as the interests of the "world community." And through control of the IMF, and other international economic institutions, the West promotes its economic interests and imposes on other nations the economic policies it thinks appropriate. The U.S. especially dominates world politics, and the main reason is because of its military superiority. The non-Western cultures, such as Islam and Confucian (Chinese) cultures would then be likely to align and counter the Western hegemony. The global environment will become more multi-polared, with different centers of power. This, Huntington argues, will be shown in the following areas:

1. Nuclear proliferation:

In the post cold war era, nuclear proliferation is unavoidable, as way to demonstrate the proliferation of power. Reason: 1. If Saddam Hussein had possessed nuclear power when he invaded Kuwait the first time in 1991, the U.S. would not have attacked it, therefore many non-Western countries such as north Korea and India learned a lesson. And China busily trades nuclear weapons to Muslim countries.

Counter-point: While it is true China may not want to see U.S. hegemony in the world, Chinese selling weapons to Pakistan and Iran also has very practical regional geopolitical and economic reasons. China shares a long border with India where there are major territorial disputes and Indian emergence as a giant economic power is a threat to China, thus helping to equip Pakistan, India's rival, militarily is one way to deter the growing strength of India. China helps Pakistan not to facilitate Islam or non-Western culture, but to take advantage of the Islamic/Hindi religious rift for political gain. Similarly, Chinese sale of weapons to Iran, an International pariah condemned by the U.S., also helps secure a secure oil supply for Chinese industrial expansion, as it does not need to compete for a host of other countries for Iranian oil, as it does elsewhere.

2. The Chinese-Islamic alliance: as a way to counter Western hegemony

• This shows the political connotation to cultural identities.
• The Sinic/Asiatic/Islamic boycotting human rights clause in most-favored nations status discussion.
• The Western backlash in denying the bid for China to host the Olympics in 2000: along cultural lines?
• Counter-point: the Chinese winning the bid for hosting the Olympics in 2008, and China's admission into the WTO in late 2001( events after 9/11 and reassessment of China's friendship): the continued relevance of politics in international relations.

3. The issue of immigration: Muslims in Europe, and Latinos and Asians in the U.S.

4. How valid is the idea of fault-line conflicts?

• Definition: fault line conflicts are fightings along civilizational lines, especially between Islam and Christianity, because both, as Huntington claims, are universal, exclusive of other religions, proselytizing, and considered superior by their believers to other religions. The decline of Western economic and political powers has allowed Islam to have a comeback. Muslims are also very much against characteristics associated with Western materialism and consumerism, which more and more impinge on Muslim societies with globalization. (Huntington, p.214).
• Huntington argues that each side in the Muslim and Christian camps has kept "the intensity of the violence at reasonably low levels and refrained from labeling violent acts as acts of war" except for the first Gulf War in 1991. (p.217) This statement has to be modified in view of the war between the U.S. and Afghanistan (2001) and the war with Iraq (2003).
• Unlike the Muslim countries that all belong to one religion, the Asians are multi-cultured and multi-religious. Despite their differences, the power of the core cultures, such as China, may lead to "bandwagoning" of neighboring countries if such could benefit them.
• Asian countries may bandwagon against the U.S. and the West because they operate under very different systems. Example: in 1985, the U.S. signed a treaty with Japan that devalued the dollar in the hope of correcting the trade imbalance (so Japan could sell less to the U.S. and U.S. more to Japan), but it did not seem to affect the trade imbalance, which still grew, suggesting Japan operated under a different system.
• Counter-point: because of the treaty and appreciation of the Japanese yen, the Japanese economic bubble actually collapsed in 1991, years before Huntington completed this book, suggesting that there are common rules guiding free market economies in the long run.