Islam in International Politics

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Islam in International Politics

• Gonda Yumitro

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• The End of History, Fukuyama (1989)
• victory of political and economic liberalism
• Endpoint of humankinds ideological evolution
• much of the world is indeed mired in history,
  having neither economic growth nor stable
  democracy nor peace. But the end of the Cold War
  marked an important turn in international
  relations, since for the first time the vast
  majority of the worlds great powers were stable,
  prosperous liberal democracies. While there
  could be skirmishes between countries in
  history, like Iraq, and those beyond it, the
  United States, the prospect of great wars between
  great powers had suddenly diminished.

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• Huntington critisized fukuyama ideas. Conflict
  in the modern era, for Huntington, has been
  largely a sequence of
• conflicts between princes (what we will study as
  the Westphalian system), then
• conflicts between nation-states (after the French
  revolution), then
• conflicts between ideologies (during the Cold
  War)

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• Huntington is reproducing what we might call a
  neo-Hegelian view of history (history as
  unfolding through conflict)
• Assumes that the end of the Cold War is a
  defining moment in history, a tipping point
• Assumes that civilizations are fairly fixed over
  time

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• For Huntington, this means that international
  politics, hitherto, was in a western phase
  non-western civilizations were the objects of
  history, the targets of western colonialism. In
  the post-Cold War, they join the West as the
  movers and shapers of history.

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Huntingtons Argument

• Traditional sources of state conflict receding
• Territory, economic benefits, ideology
• Politics of identity replacing politics of
  interest
• Main competing groups no longer states, classes
  or ideologies but civilizations

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What is a civilization?

• Largest entity with which person can identify
  short of humanity
• Three attributes objective, subjective, and
  dynamic.
• Objective elements include language, history,
  religion, customs, institutions
• Subjective elements include variable levels of
  self-identification
• Civilizations are dynamic they rise and fall,
  divide and merge

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• Defined by common ancestry, values, language,
  and/or religion
• Major civilizations
• Sinic/Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, Western,
  Slavic-Orthodox, Islam
• Latin America and Africa candidates for
  civilization

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Relations among Civilizations Changing

• No longer defined by Western influence on other
  civilizations
• West declining
• economic slowdown, population decline, internal
  decay, loss of identity
• Sinic and Islamic civilizations ascending
• Economic success of Asia
• Demographic explosion in Islamic world
• Balance of power shifting

10

• Nation-states may not disappear, singular
  civilizations will not become the norm. But
• civilization-consciousness is increasing and will
  become the dominant source of conflict
• The west will need to strengthen its own
  civilization to meet the challenge
• The West will need to better understand other
  civilizations and seek to define areas of
  potential co-existence

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Why will civilizations clash?

1. Differences between civilizations are more
   fundamental and enduring than ideological or
   political differences. Difference real and basic
2. Interactions between civilizations are
   increasing. World smaller due to globalization.
   Economic regionalism growing.
3. Economic modernization and social change are
   separating people from longstanding identities
   they weaken the nation-state as a source of
   identity.

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1. The rest of the world is increasingly willing to
   define itself in non-Western ways. Backlash
   against West enhances civilization consciousness.
   Western policies exacerbate relations.
   Non-proliferation, human rights, immigration,
   others
2. Cultural characteristics are less mutable and
   less easily compromised than political and
   economic ones. Fundamentalist religion stronger
3. Economic regionalism is increasing, which will
   increase civilization consciousness. Common
   culture, Huntington argues, may be a prerequisite
   for economic integration.

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Where is The Position of Islam?

• The biggest challenge to the West will come from
  an emerging Confucian-Islamic connection,
  primarily concentrated around the asserted right
  to develop and deploy NBC weapons (counter to the
  western value of non-proliferation).
• Post colonialisme, Islam get momentum to be
  powerful in term of politics, economic and
  cultural. Islamic resurgence in some countries
  are appeared

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• Those conditions are influenced by some factors
• Rich natural resources
• Big number of followers
• Spiritual and ideological Bank
• Transnational Islamic movements in doing dakwah
• OIC and Islamization movements in some countries
• Fundamentalist Islam

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• kristen 2, 1 milyar islam 1,6 milyar
• Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1 milyar
  Hindu 900 juta
• Chinese traditional religion 394 juta
• Buddhism 376 juta Primal-indigenous 300 juta
  African Traditional Diasporic 100 juta
  Sikhism 23 juta Spiritism 15 juta Judaism
  14 juta
• http//www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht
  ml

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American Research??

• Why Do We Think They Hate Us?
• Our democracy and freedom" (26)
• Our support for Israel" (22)
• Our values and way of life" (20)
• Our influence on the economy and lives of Middle
  Eastern countries" (17)
• Our economic and military power (11)