REVISITING THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE QUEST FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER

ERNEST WOLF-GAZO

ABSTRACT

The following treatment deals with the topics “clash of civilizations” and “world order”. It intends 
to be a revisiting of the topics and issue that occupied the academic world and the larger open 
public. Three books, turned out to be New York Times bestsellers namely, Francis Fukuyama, 
The End of History and the Last Man (1992), Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations 
and the Remaking of World Order (1997), and Henry Kissinger, World Order (2014). Although the 
books ran under the academic rubric as political science and international studies, no doubt, on 
a deeper level these works can be understood as treatments in the philosophy of history. Thus, 
accordingly, we will deal with the works and the topics and issues on the level of philosophies 
of history. Of course, it is not an accident that these books claimed high recognition level since 
the three authors had been connected to high places in the United States in government and 
Harvard University. However, the real reason why these works had such an impact is simply 
they appeared at the right time. In the years 1989 and 1990 we find the fall of the Berlin Wall 
and the reunification of Germany, as well as the implosion of the Soviet Union, and not to forget, 
the inauguration of the Internet age in 1991. The claim that with the end of the Cold War a 
“peace dividend” had been secured supported a sort of euphoria, especially in Washington D.C. 
; the so-called “end of history” meant the world has, at last, found its final form of government, 
representative parliamentary democracy. Hegel was, at least, rescued in this sort of reformulation 
of his Weltgeist (world spirit) and freedom accomplished its mission. Perhaps it was somewhat 
exaggerated but the future looked bright for the global world, at large. After some sober reflection 
and the dramatic event of 9/11/2001, Huntington promoted the idea that instead of the nation 
state it was now civilizations that were ready to combat themselves. Deep seated animosities, from 
the olden days, reappeared in the Balkans and the Middle East: the fault line between Islamic 
civilization and the West were delineated in the Mediterranean. At the same time, there was a 
process of a remaking of the world order in which the West had to take a back seat and watch 
as the East, especially China, wanted to take over the driver seat of world history, globalization. 
Needless to say, Kissinger’s subtle reflection on world order supplemented these topics that are 
dealt with since the millennium. The present essay revisits some of the relevant argument and 
reflects on the current state (2017) of world order in flux.