Ideology and Civilizational Discourse

Abstract

The current world order is undergoing a profound change in its structure, in the composition of the leading participants, and in the socio-cultural discourse that buttresses the political evolution of international relations. Two factors are essential to understand this process. First, several new states, or groups of states, entered the league of the leading world powers and began to exert a significant influence over global politics. Analysts often consider these players as civilizations, in that many such states aspire to proposing an alternative spiritual, cultural, political, and even economic developmental model. Second, the West and its followers began to experience a significant civilizational transformation at the socio-political and socio-cultural levels, placing such countries at a crossroad that could determine their existential future. Contextual transformations of this magnitude must always deploy ideology to legitimize ongoing political change, because ideology can question the prevailing conventions of the age to reflect fundamental shifts in society. From this point of view, the arrival of civilizations in the contemporary narrative of international relations invariably involves ideological doctrines that legitimize this process. This paper examines the emergent ideology of civilizational discourse, focusing on its central tenets, and discusses the political shifts that such an ideology seeks to justify.