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Fall/Winter 1995: Confuse And Instil Fear: The Narratives Of International Disorder
Great Debates in a Little World (PDF, 43 pages, 135.7 KB), by Didier Bigo
Debates on the post 1989-1990 international relations changes are always considered as purely intellectual debates in which paradigms would compete and let the best ones win. But their success also depend on other factors such as the multi-positioning of success authors, the return to common sense in stead of its rupture, silence on the incapacity to produce predictions and even to later explain with coherence the end of bipolarity. Quarrels between "experts" to impose what they say may therefore occur out of the intellectual field and in the security field. These so called academic discourses aim among other things at reconverting the security professionals' "threat management" specific capital and at giving back international relations experts their place as advisors of these professionals. This contribution looks at the works of Fukuyama, Krauthammer, Alain Joxe, Mearsheimer, Regis Debray and Samuel Huntington.
Worst-Case Scenario - disorder after the cold war (PDF, 24 pages, 80.3 KB), by John Mueller
Even if most of the problems – "major problems" as President Harry Truman used to say – that haunted the planet these last fifty years have been resolved, the never-ending quest for new preoccupations still goes on. Politicians, international relations specialists seeing their discipline losing its attraction and trying to adapt to a mutating field where old paradigms are out of date, all share the same conception of international affairs becoming particularly tumultuous, unstable and complex. The conclusions on the complexity of the post Cold War world drawn partly originated from a remarkably simplified scheme of what happened during this period. While looking at the past one often seems to suffer from myopia leading us to reconsider the past in a simplistic way, with innocence and leniency.
Clash of Civilisations: theoretical foundations and practical implication (PDF, 33 pages, 104.9 KB), by Wang Jisi
Samuel Huntington's conservative views form a complete system of representations. His predictive analysis of the conflict of civilisations can be summarised in three sentences: civilisation will be the main distinctive element in the political division of the future world; conflicts will rise between western and non-western countries; western governments ought to beware of the Islamic world and watch the eventuality of a confuciano-islamic alliance. Nevertheless, such assertions are groundless. Huntington, adviser of the prince, indeed has a hypothesis characterised by a strong conceptual ambiguity. Moreover, it is based on a very simplistic and monolithic vision of the reality of international relations. Considering the present situation it seems that Huntington severely lacks clairvoyance on the relations of power on the international scale. To make a long story short, Huntington inherits from Toynbee and Sprengler.
For Whom are These Civilisations (PDF, 35 pages, 109.6 KB), by Hayward R. Alker, Jr.
Samuel P. Huntington defines a civilisation in psycho-cultural terms as "a cultural entity…A civilisation is thus the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species". In his article called "If not Civilisations, then What?" published in Foreign Affairs, in response to his disparages, Huntington presupposes that there is no other "civilisational" alternative than his paradigm supposed to best draw the map of the world after the Cold War. The author of this contribution presents several different "civilisational" perspectives and questions the notion of culture in stead of staying in the presented debate and suggesting a non-civilisational approach to refute Huntington. This presentation shows Huntington's major omissions regarding the creation of a new civilisational paradigm. This will enable new hypothesises to rise in regards to the future of the post Cold War, which Huntington did not take into account.
Diplomacy: Cliopolitics according to Henry Kissinger (PDF, 44 pages, 139.2 KB), by Jean-Yves Haine
Henry Kissinger was admired as an intellectual but denied as politician but always linked both aspects of his life, even pretending that the first was fundamental for him. Kissinger considers that one ought to be a historian before a State's man because the past forms jurisprudence if not a law, provided one chooses the period that will generate prudential examples from efficient analogies. This historicism is marked by a pessimistic atmosphere owed to childhood memories of the end of the Weimar Republic and to O. Sprengler's "The Decline of the West". For H. Kissinger, the height of a State's man can transcend historical constraints and manipulate the sense of History. The leader then resembles a saver and the power of the State is closely linked to the personality of its chief. Kissinger's conception of international relations nevertheless remained very traditional. He only interests in the diplomatic scene. He always felt more comfortable with Hafez el Hassad, Mao or Brejnev than with the American Congress Foreign affairs Commission as personal diplomacy and his taste for the secret were aimed at bypassing the State Department. For him, bureaucracy symbolised mediocrity and constraints that were negative for the "Creator" head of the State and his ability to act. He even formulated doubts on the capacity of democracies to lead a coherent foreign policy, as e considered enlighten monarchy was the reference regime. But Kissinger is disappointing. His historical realism confused relations of power and concert of nations. But most of all he ignored the sociological and political grounds of international relations. His diplomacy could only be conservative because it was too linked to "celebrities" and it was linked to a restricted conception of international relations. Czech writer and a Polish electrician have been more creative State's men than Kissinger the diplomat has.
Review Essay: The Huntington Affair (PDF, 15 pages, 48.7 KB), by Percival Manglano
The author analyses the reactions caused by the publication of Samuel Huntington's article "The Clash of Civilizations?" in the summer 1993 Foreign Affairs issue. While comparing the different reactions published, Percival Mangalano emphasises how the debates concentrated around this spectacular statement. It therefore seems that the argumentation generated fewer debates than its interpretations. Is a critical perspective of the argument and the content possible? Percival Manglano shows that it is possible and even desirable.