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The Huntington Thesis and Turkey's New Role

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The Huntington Thesis and Turkey's New Role


It has been eighteen years since Harvard professor Samuel P. Huntington published his famous essay “The Clash of Civilizations’’ in Foreign Affairs, later expanded into a book. Although the man was widely praised for the provocative thrust of his thinking, the thesis has been roundly attacked or blithely ignored over the past two decades. This is remarkable because world history has unfolded over those eighteen years in ways that have bolstered the Huntington thesis, the essence of which was that with the end of the Cold War, cultural impulses and feelings would rise to the surface and drive global events to a much greater extent than before.


But Americans collectively didn’t want to confront the idea that civilizational clashes—which implied ethnic and religious frictions—would become a fundamental reality of international relations, even as civilizational sensibilities were defining much of what was happening in the world. And so the intellectual discourse has sought some other framework—almost any framework—for understanding the course of global events. And Huntington found himself widely mischaracterized by commentators wishing to blunt his impact on public discourse.


Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times, for example, characterized the Huntington thesis as saying that “with the Cold War over, we won’t have the Soviets to kick around any more, so we will naturally go back to kicking the Hindus and Muslims around and them kicking us around.’’ The most charitable thing to be said about this (leaving aside the syntax) is that Friedman never read Huntington’s article or book before issuing his critique.

That’s unfortunate because the Huntington framework offers the best guidance in how America should project itself in a world aflame with cultural passions—and in how America should treat with countries of other civilizations. Exhibit A is Turkey.

Turkey gets under the skin of a lot of American commentators these days. They find it irritating that this Muslim nation, once so friendly toward the West and committed to secular rule, should embrace a governing party, the AKP, that wishes to pull away from the West and orient the government more toward its Islamic heritage. This can’t be good, caution the commentators, issuing dire warnings about Turkey plunging itself into Islamist radicalism.

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In fact, there is little danger that Turkey, a relatively stable democracy for nearly a century, will turn into an Islamist dictatorship. And the country’s recent moves away from the strong secularism of its modern founder, Kemal Ataturk, far from a cause of concern, should be greeted in the West as a healthy development. And Huntington explains why, although he died in 2008 and wrote before the emergence of Turkey’s prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, architect of the strategic changes in Turkish policy that so rankle some Americans.

Those who have actually read Huntington know that he never evinced any pleasure in the prospect of civilizational clash or advocated bold initiatives against countries of other civilizations in order for America to gain an upper hand in this new era. To the contrary, he warned that this era would be particularly unstable because cultural conflicts, centering on how different peoples define themselves, are so difficult to adjudicate—far more difficult, for example, than land disputes or conflicts over competing geopolitical claims. Therefore, said Huntington, the new era called for an American foreign policy based on respect for countries of other civilizations and an appreciation for their particular cultural sensibilities.


That’s why he opposed the Iraq war. He didn’t think America should go traipsing into the heartland of Islam, first of all, and he also saw the U.S. resolve to foster Western-style democracy in Iraq as insulting to the Iraqi people, who had their own cultural heritage to guide them in ordering their government.

In this new era of cultural sensibility, said Huntington, a large burden for ensuring peace falls to the civilizational “core states’’—America for the West; Russia for the Orthodox civilization; China for the Sinic; India for the Hindu. Unfortunately, said Huntington, Islam had no core state, which he saw as problematic. “The core states of civilizations,’’ he wrote, “are sources of order within civilizations and, through negotiations with other core states, between civilizations.’’


The Ottomans, of course, were the core of Islam for centuries prior to World War I. But then Turkey became what Huntington called a “torn country’’—a nation with a single predominant culture that places it in one civilization while its leaders seek to shift it to another civilization. That is the legacy of Ataturk, and Turkey is thus “the classic torn country’’ because its leaders since the 1920s have wanted Turkey to look West and become more Western in outlook and sensibility. It worked for a time, particularly during the Cold War, when Turkey’s interest in keeping Soviet Russia out of its sphere of influence converged nicely with the West’s interest in stymying Soviet advancement everywhere.

But, as Huntington knew, the end of the Cold War would bring an inevitable divergence in how Turkey and the West saw their interests. As he wrote, “Cold War confrontations with the Soviet Union did not raise the question of Turkey’s civilizational identity; post-Cold War relations with Arab countries do.’’ Hence, Turkey helped the United States in the first Gulf War but refused to allow its territory to be used for staging U.S. troop deployments in the second war. Hence, whereas the old Turkey hungered for European Union membership, the new Turkey isn’t sure it cares anymore. Hence, while relations with Israel were important to Turkey when it was looking West and seeking EU membership, a close alliance is counterproductive if Turkey wants to look East and play a leadership role among Muslim countries in the Middle East.


This is difficult to accept for those who want America to hold sway wherever in the world it may wish to hold sway at any given time. They want Turkey to play the same role vis-à-vis America that it played during the Cold War. But the Cold War is over, and Turkey is playing a role now much more in keeping with its true heritage. As Huntington predicted, “At some point, Turkey could be ready to give up its frustrating and humiliating role as a beggar pleading for membership in the West and to resume its much more impressive and elevated historical role as the principal Islamic interlocutor.’’

That’s what’s happening now, and it’s a positive development. No need, and no justification, for American commentators to attack Turkey as “a country that no responsible country can trust,’’ as The Wall Street Journal did. Or to say that it is experiencing a “national decline into madness,’’ as the Journal’s Robert Pollock did (ignoring its 8.9 percent GDP growth last year; some decline). Or characterize Turkey’s prime minister as “the more-than-nutsy…Erdogan,’’ as The New Republic’s Marty Peretz did in a particularly unsavory bit of commentary.


No, Turkey should be encouraged to develop its role as Islamic interlocutor, perhaps even as something of a core state for Islam. It can help guide the Middle East through its current travails and struggles far better than the United States can. That’s because we live in the era of the Clash of Civilizations.

Robert W. Merry is editor of The National Interest and the author of books on American history and foreign policy.

article is wtitten 10 years ago, and is more relevant today then at the time it was written.

also it tieds quite well US political establishment sentiment and their anti-TR policies from then to today. Its pure hubris. But also highligted the short sightedness of turkish nationalist isolationists of some turkish political parties.. I will not name any, but its obvious who are they.

https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-huntington-thesis-turkeys-new-role-6129

Lets discuss
 
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entire UAE/Saudi/Israel axis exist to prevent that scenario ( aside of containing Iran) is to stop Turkey becoming the corre state of muslim world. Thats why they are opposed of Turkish invlment in Somalia, Libya, Syria... and are trying to undermine it. Turkey got very close to achiving it during The Arab Spring when Egypt, Tunisia, Lybia...fell to revolutinary forces all of them heiling Turkey as and example. And what heppened, they lunched counterrevolutions in all this places to curb it. You thing that if Morsi was still president that he would sign anythinh with Greece cyprriots? Hell no. Libya too. This EEZ deal was in the works for some time... Tunisia is only left standing and even there UAE/France is working hard to put pressure on Nahda, founding oppo parties and so on....
 
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entire UAE/Saudi/Israel axis exist to prevent that scenario ( aside of containing Iran) is to stop Turkey becoming the corre state of muslim world. Thats why they are opposed of Turkish invlment in Somalia, Libya, Syria... and are trying to undermine it. Turkey got very close to achiving it during The Arab Spring when Egypt, Tunisia, Lybia...fell to revolutinary forces all of them heiling Turkey as and example. And what heppened, they lunched counterrevolutions in all this places to curb it. You thing that if Morsi was still president that he would sign anythinh with Greece cyprriots? Hell no. Libya too. This EEZ deal was in the works for some time... Tunisia is only left standing and even there UAE/France is working hard to put pressure on Nahda, founding oppo parties and so on....

as history shows.. the gulfies are our enemies.. turks need to grow that awareness.. but unfortunallly if trigger the right spots you can ppl make revolts or hurting the country.. this happned in turkey this happened recently in iran too,,

the uae and saudi arabia lawrence combo can only be handled with an iron fist.. they dont understand values like talking, having sabir or being friendly.. if we arnt able to support our thing on our borders.. than we have a long way to go.. first we have to give undenyable and continiously support for our groubs and allies and if we have to use voilence we should use it with full strentgh

our neighbors are waiting for opportunities and our enemies are more than our friends..

UAE, KSA, Greeks and Armenia, geuropeans, israel, +several arab states barking on the backyard of the gulfies like a chihuahua

the list begins with number 1 most wicked devil enemy and goes down to ants some who are too far are not included..

I also recommend our ppl no to consider the big frieds of this countries to be friedly towards you it may be just a lipservice..
 
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I think we must diferentiete between goverments/monarchies of those countries and its ppl. Their emir and kings are afraid for their thrones, and act acrodingly not to mention that their security on those thrones are heavily dependent on US/France and others. Even their muslim scholars, of salafi kind, were prasing Muhamed El Fatih and Ottoman Chaliphate and how arab future kings are treators. Unfortunetly those now rot in Saudi prisons like Selman Ouda and others or are in exile. And the ppl, there are lots of gulfies coming in Bosnia for vacation past few years, their first stop was Turkey. I havent hreard a bad word about Turkey, esspecially Erdogan.. and you know how strong propaganda against Turkey was and is still in Saud/UAE against Turkey and Erdogan. But ppl are not stupid, they understand. Hell, Saudis even lunched Anti.Turkish campaign before holiday season, don go to Turkey. And by all estimetes it failed misarbly. Number of tourist from there even increased. They are afraid of their ppl upon visit to Turkey to come with some new ideas, dengerous for the monarchs. And Erdogan is very popular, what ever you in Turkey think about him domesticly, he is seen as strong and smart leader, charismatic... everything they would want to see in their leaders. If you get me. Few days ago I stumbled on I think Gallup poll for Lebanon, gueys who is by far most popular muslim leader among Lebanon sunnis and which country? Erdogan and Turkey of course.

Let take a look on soft power issue, turkish TV series are dominating thiose region, from the guld to the north Africa, and even Eastern, like Somalia. Ertegrul is freaking hit, its like Game of Thrones of muslim world in terms of popularity. Their desperete response is to lucng there crapy anti-ottoman series to try to weaken their influence.

these are short sighted ppl, similiarf to some turkish politicans, they dont see the opportunity infornt of them. US world order is unreaveling since the invasion of Iraq, its like watching train crash in slow motion almost. And instead to use that opportunity to start a process similiar to EU, at least on economic level, and take back control of their own faith and the faith of the reagion to its owners. But they to blind. Of course Turkey should be its core, its most devolept, it has perfect geo poistion, divirsified economy, strong military... Smart leaders would see that as a blessing to have such a state. Just like westernt states saw US after WWII as such...
Unfortunetly only emirs of Qatar were smart enough to see it. Thats why Qatar was pushing for revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia.. and followed turkish lead. They dont want a fucking US base to be there for centuries and to be blakmailed by Trump into partnershit with Exon and buying US weapons. Thats why they invited TSK there, and the base is gonna get a lot larger. Just read the other day that Qataris gave TSK and MiT licence to do inteligence work.
 
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I think we must diferentiete between goverments/monarchies of those countries and its ppl. Their emir and kings are afraid for their thrones, and act acrodingly not to mention that their security on those thrones are heavily dependent on US/France and others. Even their muslim scholars, of salafi kind, were prasing Muhamed El Fatih and Ottoman Chaliphate and how arab future kings are treators. Unfortunetly those now rot in Saudi prisons like Selman Ouda and others or are in exile. And the ppl, there are lots of gulfies coming in Bosnia for vacation past few years, their first stop was Turkey. I havent hreard a bad word about Turkey, esspecially Erdogan.. and you know how strong propaganda against Turkey was and is still in Saud/UAE against Turkey and Erdogan. But ppl are not stupid, they understand. Hell, Saudis even lunched Anti.Turkish campaign before holiday season, don go to Turkey. And by all estimetes it failed misarbly. Number of tourist from there even increased. They are afraid of their ppl upon visit to Turkey to come with some new ideas, dengerous for the monarchs. And Erdogan is very popular, what ever you in Turkey think about him domesticly, he is seen as strong and smart leader, charismatic... everything they would want to see in their leaders. If you get me. Few days ago I stumbled on I think Gallup poll for Lebanon, gueys who is by far most popular muslim leader among Lebanon sunnis and which country? Erdogan and Turkey of course.

Let take a look on soft power issue, turkish TV series are dominating thiose region, from the guld to the north Africa, and even Eastern, like Somalia. Ertegrul is freaking hit, its like Game of Thrones of muslim world in terms of popularity. Their desperete response is to lucng there crapy anti-ottoman series to try to weaken their influence.

these are short sighted ppl, similiarf to some turkish politicans, they dont see the opportunity infornt of them. US world order is unreaveling since the invasion of Iraq, its like watching train crash in slow motion almost. And instead to use that opportunity to start a process similiar to EU, at least on economic level, and take back control of their own faith and the faith of the reagion to its owners. But they to blind. Of course Turkey should be its core, its most devolept, it has perfect geo poistion, divirsified economy, strong military... Smart leaders would see that as a blessing to have such a state. Just like westernt states saw US after WWII as such...
Unfortunetly only emirs of Qatar were smart enough to see it. Thats why Qatar was pushing for revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia.. and followed turkish lead. They dont want a fucking US base to be there for centuries and to be blakmailed by Trump into partnershit with Exon and buying US weapons. Thats why they invited TSK there, and the base is gonna get a lot larger. Just read the other day that Qataris gave TSK and MiT licence to do inteligence work.

The Egyptians actually planned on doing a Muhammed Ali Pasha movie and his son or a tv series now its in doubt because it might piss off the Saudis due to Muhammed Ali Pasha and his two sons Tosun and Ibrahim Pasha fighting and destroying the first Saudi State.

A tv series wont go well. Honestly Ertugurl, Payithat and other Ottoman tv series might be garbage at being historically accurate.

But they do provide another perfect example of Turkish soft power. It seems people are interested in learning more about the Ottomans. The city of Sogut thanks to Ertugurl tv series has become a tourist attraction. It seems fans of the show are visiting the first capital of the Ottoman Empire.
 
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Hardly any such series/movies are historicy accurete. Even US ones are terrible in historicly accuracy. And Eregrul, well, there's not much of material to go by, hostoricly. He's more like a symbol, convaying a msg. Its also popular wirh muslims living in the West, Netflix picked it up, its refreshing for those aduincess to see muslim, turks in these occasion depicted not as a villians. Its tells the story from ME ppl angle, not the other way around.

of couse. Many hollywood movies are screend by Pentagon and DC and funded by them for the same reason, soft power.

Washington DC’s role behind the scenes in Hollywood goes deeper than you think

https://www.independent.co.uk/voice...-intervening-close-relationship-a7918191.html
 
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Their is no clash of civilizations. It’s just for show. The real intention is something different. The real intention were published several years ago by Warren Buffet in NYT. You can still find the article.
 
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Their is no clash of civilizations. It’s just for show. The real intention is something different. The real intention were published several years ago by Warren Buffet in NYT. You can still find the article.

have you read the book? between him and Fukujamas End of History bullshit, Hutinghton got way more things right. Even if his overall conclusion is maybe wrong, many of his analysis f individual contries for exmpl were spot on. Mind you entire Bush administration and neoconservative elite did shape much of 21 century heavily influnced by him.

Buffets dont run the world. At least not yet.
 
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There are two potential candidates to fill the vacancy of an Islamic core state representative of majority of muslims— Turkey and Saudi Arabia. I would argue that for an Islamic core state to be acceptable, ideological doctrine is more important than the economy. Turks will certainly have to deal with their nationalism before they become acceptable to the rest. I am not sure how is that possible. Saudi liberalism will not improve Saudi chances either.

Thus, there is a fair chance of Pakistan under a pan Islamic regime who would be shy of seeking foreign donors every now and then. Pakistan must be ideologically determined before that is going to take place. Nevertheless, Islamic world doesn't like pro western sluttery of their own leaderships as Islam itself is a rival civilization.
 
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there is more Islam in governece in Sweden then in Saudi.
 
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"In fact, there is little danger that Turkey, a relatively stable democracy for nearly a century, will turn into an Islamist dictatorship"

Stable democracy with 3 bloody coups lol?
 
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"In fact, there is little danger that Turkey, a relatively stable democracy for nearly a century, will turn into an Islamist dictatorship"

Stable democracy with 3 bloody coups lol?

well, he said relativly. I mean its not like some prominent EU members didnt face some 'hurdles'; Portugal, Spain, Greecce
 
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well, he said relativly. I mean its not like some prominent EU members didnt face some 'hurdles'; Portugal, Spain, Greecce
well, he said relativly. I mean its not like some prominent EU members didnt face some 'hurdles'; Portugal, Spain, Greecce

Of course every country has hurdles, but I hate this Western idea that Turkey was super cool all the time until Erdogan arrived to ruin the party. Alot of people think that way. Not that I'm a fan of the current government or whatever..
 
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Believe it or not , any state which mimics Western cultures and values will be rejected by majority of the Muslim community. That pro West state will never become 'a core Islamic State'. This was also one of factor which caused the downfall of the later Ottoman. Do not dance in a tango with the West.
 
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Of course every country has hurdles, but I hate this Western idea that Turkey was super cool all the time until Erdogan arrived to ruin the party. Alot of people think that way. Not that I'm a fan of the current government or whatever..

it doesnt say that, it even chelenges the narrative of big bad Erdogan as written in article. Book was wr5itten 1993., and this commentary builds on Huntigtons thoughts.
 
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