Civilisation as Paradigm: An Inquiry into the Hermeneutics of Conflict

Abstract

This article examines Samuel Huntington's claims that his civilisational theory rises to the level of paradigm and is not merely social science theory. This claim is examined in light of Huntington's focus on Islamic civilisation and its relationship to the ongoing war on terror. The specific manifestations of Islam that have been relevant to this war are placed within the context of what Jeffrey Herf refers to as reactionary modernism, which views violent reactions to modernity as alternative expressions of modernity. While Islam has civilisational characteristics, as Huntington suggests, the violence that gives rise to terror is a result of time- and region-specific reactionary modern variables, and is not inherent in Islam itself. Second, though civilisation-as-social science might shed light on policy options to deal with the problem of terror, civilisational theory is not equipped to supersede the interest-orientation of realism.