Summary
Today's Blogpost is about Samuel Huntington Essay Managing the Clash of Civilizations, how tackles China's rising in Power
Samuel Huntington in his Essay “Managing the Clash of Civilisations” posits that cultural and civilizational identities would shape the future landscape of international relations. According to Huntington, the world would witness a “clash of civilizations” where major cultural entities, rather than nation-states, would be the primary actors on the global stage.
There is a term in the essay “Thucydides’ trap” which describes tensions and dynamic between one rising power and one ruling power. It imparts the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power the most likely outcome is war. Right now I see an ongoing economic war between China and USA. China trying to displace dollars and increase the flow of Yuan. It is trying to claim its territories wrongly. The countries that USA do not support China is extending its support towards those countries. On top of that there are cultural differences between these two countries. China is a high context country, their tone of communication is implicit and subtle. Whereas USA is a low context country their way of communication is verbal and straightforward. For that reason sometimes what China does is unacceptable or shocking to USA. For instance, the propaganda of China sending over spy ballon to USA has an interesting cultural twist to it.
China and the U.S. have different explanations for why the balloon was flying over. the U.S. ; Beijing maintains it was a “civilian unmanned airship” for weather research simply blown . The U.S. says it was a “high altitude surveillance balloon” attempting to spy on strategic sites within the country. Because, USA shot down the ballon, Beijing declined all of USA’s hotline call, instead of clearly communicating. Officially, China’s defense ministry said it declined a call about the balloon because the U.S. decision to shoot it down “failed to create a proper atmosphere” for dialogue and exchange between the two militaries.” On the other hand, The Pentagon said it remained open to communication and doesn’t seek conflict. Sending a balloon to a sovereign nation’s sky without any alert is undoubtedly offensive, but in Chinese perspective they did not breach their boundaries.Beijing has long called for the U.S. to follow principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation” . If two countries do not sit together and talk about their differences, a small incident can ignite a big war.
One reply on “Week 14”
Shamma,
There are indeed many flash points in the US-China relationship that could escalate into hostilities. The incident with the spy balloons was fairly limited and became a propaganda war. But there are others, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, that do have real potential spin out of control. Within the last few years, China has been testing the limits, flying its fighter jets dangerously close to planes from the US in international airspace. And China has been doing the same in the waters of the South China Sea with ships belonging to the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States. It is a dangerous game, and it could result in a realignment of diplomatic and military relatonships in the region. –Professor Wallerstein