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Sources of Conflict in Contemporary World

Samuel P. Huntington, in his essay "The Clash of Civilizations?" from the book of the same title, argues that "the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural" (22). This study will argue that Huntington is wrong and that the divisions and conflict will continue to be economic. Huntington also argues that the Cold War was largely a matter of ideological conflict, but it is this study's argument that the Cold War was also economic. The Cold War was a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union not over theory or ideology, but over the control of the economic resources of the Third World. Ideology, politics, and military strategy were secondary factors next to this essential economic concern; those secondary factors were merely vehicles for controlling those economic resources.

Cultural factors are not the central elements of the "new world" of the post-Cold War era, as Huntington argues. Huntington argues that the cultural divisions and conflicts of the "new world" will be based on basic differences among the civilizations of the West, the East, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, and then concludes that even economics will be based on such cultural divisions: "economic regionalism is increasing. . . . Successful economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-consciousness" (27). If we take as an example civilization of the East, we find that it is not one civilization or culture, but many civilizations or cultures which are very different from one another. Huntington's argument is misguided because he does not recognize these cultural differences among nations in a region, but assumes that because they are in one region of the world they are culturally similar. The regional alliances of the East are not based on cultural unity but rather on economic consideratio...

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Sources of Conflict in Contemporary World. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:21, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1700647.html