why was the cold war called a clash of civilizations quizlet

One of the central axes of conflict is between Western powers and non-Western civilizations.

For example, he identifies a sharp line between peoples of Western Christianity and those of Muslim and Orthodox traditions. Huntington believes certain countries are more united now because of their shared cultural values, while others have split apart because they have become more focused on how their cultures differ. This form of identification can both bring people together and split them apart. Huntington’s main argument regarding the changes that occurred after the Cold War is that the differences between people shifted from ideological, political, or economic ones to cultural ones after the fall of the main rivalry between communism and capitalism, people across the world began to define themselves primarily by their different cultural groups. After this system collapsed, it left room for multiple civilizations to rise to a more powerful position and compete with each other on an international scale. The shift toward a multipolar system occurred after the Cold War, when politics involved a bipolar system of Soviet vs. Next he explains the terms “multipolar” and “multicivilizational,” which constitute the main argument of this first section. Neither is it Westernizing those societies that were not Western to begin with. Huntington will also argue that modernization is not leading to a “universal civilization,” or turning the world into a single civilization. In other words, Huntington believes that the process of a society becoming modern is not the same as the process of a society adopting the values of Western civilization. He will also discuss how modernization is different from Westernization. In this first section, he will explore the ways in which global politics have become multipolar and multicivilizational, meaning they involve multiple world powers and civilizations competing with one another. Huntington splits his main argument into five parts, corresponding to the five sections of the book.

He introduces the central question of the book: What are the new sources of social organization in general, and conflict in particular, in this period after the end of the Cold War? Huntington zeroes in on the role of civilizations, which he defines as the broadest level of a cultural identity. Huntington begins his text by emphasizing the importance of cultural difference in the post Cold-War world.

Why was the cold war called a clash of civilizations quizlet