The Clash of Civilizations Thesis in Light of US Foreign Policy:

Abstract

Amongst the many theories that attempted to anticipate the post-Cold War world, the Clash of Civilizations theory emerged as one of the most popular. The theory, proposed by Bernard Lewis and later developed by Samuel P. Huntington in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, is based on the idea that the post-Cold War world would witness conflicts based on purely religious and cultural differences. Because the foundational values of certain civilizations are incompatible, Huntington and Lewis argued that conflicts between them are very probable and even inevitable. Lewis stressed the core differences between the Western and Islamic civilizations. Scholars have been revisiting the propositions of this theory every time a grand conflict takes place. Two of the most significant recent global events that brought to the mind the propositions of the Clash of Civilizations are the post-9/11 Global War on Terror, launched by the USA and its allies, which is perceived by many Muslims as a war on Islam, and the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian war.This dissertation examines the clashes that have taken place during these events in light of the clash of civilizations theory inquiring whether the two conflicts lend any support to its propositions. Many factors including the propaganda that accompanied the GWOT, loaded with historical memories of bloody encounters between Islam and the West, and the rise in Islamophobia, appears to suggest that the cultural aspect is relevant. As for the second case, it can be argued that the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian war is not really a Ukrainian-Russian war, but rather a Russian-Western war on Ukrainian territory, whose origins go back to the Cold War era. Despite the fact that the religious and cultural differences are among the reasons of the conflict, but are not the main reasons.