1. Samuel Huntington is perhaps the most well-known person to adopt the paradigm of
cultural differentialism. At the core of this paradigm is the idea that there are differences between
cultures that go beyond globalization and that they are largely unaffected by it. In his book,
Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, Huntington suggests three distinct
phases that have occurred among civilizations. The first phase dates from 1500 BC to AD1500.
During this phase, people were separated by space and time making it rare to ever interact with
each other. When they did it was often violent. The second phase dates from 1500 to the end of
World War II. This phase was characterized by an overwhelming influence of the West on the
rest of the world. It was at this time that the West developed a dominant military force and
became very successful at organized violence. The third phase dates from World War II to
around 1990. Huntington refers to this phase as the multicivilizational system and argues that
during this time we began to see an end to the expansion of the West and the beginning of a
revolt against it. Huntington was especially concerned with the resurgence of two civilizations;
the economic growth of Asian civilizations and the relations between the West and Islam.
Current world affairs would suggest that Huntington was correct in his narrative of recorded
history. I will refer to two different examples to illustrate: China and Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS).
It is common knowledge that China’s economy has been growing steadily for the past
several decades and is projected to become the largest in the world within the next 50 years. This
economic growth has meant that China no longer has to rely on other countries (particularly the
United States) for its survival. When Apple first opened its factory in Shenzhen, China was
economically reliant upon the U.S. This allowed the U.S. to essentially force the government of
China to adhere to our rules even in non-economic areas such as human rights. While the U.S.

2. saw this as universalism, China saw it as imperialism. However, China had no option if they
wanted Apple (with its economic support) to remain in the country. Now that China’s economy
has improved drastically, it is no longer dependent on the U.S. and the roles have reversed. China
is now able to demand that the U.S. follow their rules and codes of ethics.
ISIS is an example of a situation where the relationship between the West and Islam has
gone from one of political power to one of cultural power. In Iraq, Sadam Hussein was able to
keep the country under his control and the control of the Ba’ath party. Since 2003 when U.S.
coalition forces invaded Iraq, and subsequently Sadam’s execution in 2006, the country has not
been able to maintain its solidarity. After Sadam’s capture, the U.S. went into Iraq and tried to
force our democratic beliefs on their country. Again, the U.S. viewed it as universalism but the
Iraqis viewed it as imperialism. There has been continuous fighting in Iraq and the surrounding
regions since the fall of Sadam and today we see it in full force with ISIS. This has become a
cultural war pinning the Suunis against the Shias with no political or economic power able to
stop them. ISIS has been able to infiltrate into the West and we are seeing more and more
“westerners” joining ISIS to fight against the West and what they view as imperialism.
Based on Huntington’s theories of the multicivilizational system, I see the world powers
changing dramatically over the next few decades. I envision China as the dominant economic
power in the world due to their technological advances along with their low wage factories
allowing them to produce and export goods at much lower prices than anyone else. For example,
many of the most popular technologies in the world (Apple, Kindle, Blackberry, Playstation, etc)
are produce and exported out of FoxComm in China. I see Russia as becoming the military
power in the world because they are continuing to increase their forces and their equipment.

3. While the U.S. is getting rid of their tanks and other heavy equipment, Russia continues to build
newer and better ones. I believe the U.S. will also continue to downsize their troops because after
the decade of wars we’ve been involved with, we can longer economically support the level of
troops we currently have. I believe the U.S. will continue to lose its world power for the very
reason that Huntington stated: we will become a multicultural nation with no one majority
culture. As the Hispanic population continues to grow, there will be fighting and discourse
among the whites and Hispanics as well as blacks and Hispanics. There will continue to be
tensions between blacks and whites. Another major group that continues to grow and gain
strength is the LGBT community. We will begin to see discourse between them and the
heterosexual population as well. For this reason, we will not be seen by the rest of the world as a
unified force to contend with. Lastly, I think Islam will continue to gather members and a
growing number of people will come to agree that the West has dominated the rest of the world
for too long and will rise up to fight against us. We are already seeing a growing number of “lone
wolf” attacks being committed by Westerners against Westerners. This number will continue to
grow and the violence will get worse.
In conclusion, I agree wholeheartedly with Huntington in his fears that the U.S. will
continue to decline resulting in a demise of Western civilization. He argues that for the U.S. to
survive, it must do two things: it must reaffirm its identity as a Western nation and it must
reaffirm and reassert its role as leader of the Western world. In order to reaffirm its identity as a
Western nation, it would have to have one dominant culture or civilization and as I mentioned
before, I don’t foresee that happening. There are too many different cultures in our country and
soon there will not be a majority anymore. For the U.S. to reassert its role as leader of the
Western world, we have to be dominant in the areas of economics, politics and military and

4. while we may still be strong in those areas, we are losing ground with no immediate sign of
change to come.