Civilizations in World Politics:
Beyond East and West
Peter Katzenstein
Cornell University
Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
President and Professor
Hu Jintao and Huntington: East vs. West
Liu Weibing/Xinhua, Via Associated Press
Jeff Christensen/AFP/Getty Images, Via Foreign Policy
2
Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
President and Professor
• Civilizations
Huntington’s Map of Civilizations
– Are combative and clashing or
plural and pluralist
– Defined by core values or
multiple traditions
– Cultural realism: plural not
pluralist
– Cosmopolitan liberalism:
pluralist not plural
• Korea between Civilizations
Image adapted from:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f
/Clash_of_Civilizations_map.png/800pxClash_of_Civilizations_map.png
3
Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
GIC: Above the Nation State
• Globalization (reconfigure state sovereignty)
– Glocalization and constitutive norms/processes
http://tower.arcadia.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2012/02/globalization_b_1293566053.png
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonteale/4438329536/in/pool13047686@N00/lightbox/
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
GIC: Above the Nation State
• Internationalization (increase social density)
– Varieties of capitalism and regulatory norms/processes
Map of the Internet
(Internationalization)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070831144233.htm
Map of the World Wide Web
(Globalization)
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csistudies/studies/vol49no3/html_files/Graphics/webmap_pg58.jpg
5
Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
GIC: Above the Nation State
• Civilization (create communities of meanings and
practices)
– Communities of identities and practices
Changdeokgung Palace Complex
Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty
© OUR PLACE The World Heritage Collection
© UNESCO
6
Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Civilizational Outcomes
• Intercivilizational Encounters
– Violent Clash
Cultural Imperialism: impose content and form
– Transcivilizational Engagement
Widespread acceptance: content or form
• Hybridization: shifting balances of practice
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Roadmap
•
•
•
•
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization and Civilizational Processes
Anglo-America and Civilizational Identities
Conclusion
Image: http://www.neuro-it.net/bilder/roadmap.jpg
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Trilogy Project
Vol. 1-Civilizations in World
Politics: Plural and Pluralist
Perspectives
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Civilizational Analysis
• Defined: urban, language,
literature, religion
• Embedded: in a larger context or
ecumene (William McNeill and
Marshall Hodgson)
• Not an actor — but a complex
• Not a voice in our head — but a
town hall meeting arguing about
our options
Images : http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h1GvuotXRcE/TlEia4QLlaI/AAAAAAAARv8/As8MYZCgdkc/s1600/seoul-image.jpg ;
http://asiasociety.org/files/korean.png ; http://ramundo.us/korea/p/temple17.jpg
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Civilizational Analysis
• Dispositional Analysis — actor oriented,
consensual, essentialist, unchanging
• Discursive analysis — processual, contested,
relational, malleable
• Primordiality: Disposition and Discourse
– Social construct and political project
– Other examples: Gender, race, ethnicity, nationality
– Crystallization in situations of fear, threat, insecurity
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Civilizational Analysis
• Shmuel Eisenstadt
– Placed in one encompassing
civilization of modernity
– Multiple modernities
activated by axial age
religions (Jaspers)
Images : http://www.holbergprisen.no/en/shmuel-n-eisenstadt.html
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_asFjd3aTQdE/TUm76GsXVRI/AAAAAAAAAAU/-ogUHClLEs/s1600/Axial+Age+Map+etc.jpg
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Civilizational Analysis
• Randall Collins
– Porous zones of prestige
– Competition within and between nodes
– Long-distance networks
• Norbert Elias
– Reversible civilizing processes
– Social and psychological restraints
– Adapt to international arena
Images: http://sociology.sas.upenn.edu/r_collins ; http://www.norberteliasfoundation.nl/
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Civilizational Analysis: Multiplicities not Binaries
• Multiple Actors (empires, states, pooled
sovereignty polities, stateless polities, diasporic
politics)
• Multiple Actors (coalitions, groups, organizations,
individuals)
• Multiple Traditions (and institutions)
• Multiple Processes (and relational mechanisms)
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Trilogy Project
Vol. 2 – Sinicization and the
Rise of China: Civilizational
Processes beyond East and
West
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Sinicization: Meaning
Images:
http://history.cult
uralchina.com/china
WH/upload/upfile
s/201008/04/more_info
d11586cac47afd5
abff8.jpg
http://www.china
daily.com.cn/olym
pics/images/attac
hement/jpg/site1/
20080809/00042
30fa5680a075986
11.jpg
Feng Li/Getty
Images via Foreign
Policy
• Making the world suitable to China and Chinese
practices (assimilation – conformity –
acculturation)
• Milieu goals (A. Wolfers)
• “Harmony” vs “hegemony”: interesting diversity
vs. not dull uniformity
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Sinicization: Meaning
• Practices : self-conscious and
unreflected
– military rise
– commercial expansion
– multilateralism with a Chinese face
http://id.china-embassy.org/eng/rdht/60thnationalday/W020071005798159227932.jpg
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Sinicization: Three Types
• Resinicization: rupture
• Desinicization: imitation
• Sinicization (mixed outcome): recombination
Protests over Chinese patriotic education in Hong Kong
http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/stories/hong-kong-says-no-to-mainland-education-chinese-reactions.html
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Sinicization: Recombination
• Security: Sovereignty and
suzerainty; unification not
an end state but ongoing
practices
• Security: Zones not
borders; discursive
practices then and now
Images:
https://d13uygpm
1enfng.cloudfront
.net/articleimgs/en/2012/09/
29/AJ2012092900
72/AJ2012092900
73M.jpg
http://www.inter
national.gc.ca/ar
msarmes/assets/ima
ges/South_China_
Sea_2.jpg
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Sinicization: Recombination
• Political Economy: Compressed development; preand post-industrialism
• Culture: Overseas Chinese and Diaspora Politics
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Sinicization Compared
• Japanization and Indianization
– Multiple practices
– Radiation outward
– Incorporation inward
– Rising power or not
Top: reason.com
Bottom: Peter Macdiarmid /
Getty via TIME Magazine
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Trilogy Project
Vol. 3-Anglo-America and Its
Discontents: Civilizational
Identities beyond West and East
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Conclusion: Civilization of Modernity
• Two bridge civilizations: Anglo-America and Islam
• Anglo-America: vertical practice connections to
the civilization of modernity
– English as a lingua franca
– Rights revolution
– Science and technology (electronic; biotechnology)
– Popular culture industries
– Enchanting New World (vs. a White Brand)
• Islam: horizontal geographic connections within
the civilization of modernity
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Conclusion: Civilization of Modernity
• Thin
– Rome (not Athens or Jerusalem):
“transmission culture” (Brague)
– Japan’s popular culture industry:
“odorless” (Iwabuchi)
– Liberalism’s “thin proceduralism” (Haas)
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Conclusion: Civilization of Modernity
• Demanding
– No imperialism of imposing a single standard of
conduct (as in many versions of liberal theory)
– No relativism of accepting all political practices (as in
many critiques of liberal theory)
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Beyond East and West: Kipling
• Rudyard Kipling’s Ballad of East and West:
“Oh East is East and West is West and never the twain
shall meet
Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s great
Judgment seat…..
But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed
nor birth
When two strong men stand face to face, tho they
come from the ends of the earth.”
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Introduction
Civilizational Analysis
Sinicization
Conclusion
Thank you!
27
Polymorphic Globalism
Searching for Political-Cultural Commenurabilities
• At two intersections
– Civil religious politics: Intermingling of secular and
religious politics (Bellah)
– Transcendental (religion and science) vs historiological
politics (Murakami)
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Conclusion
• Baroque or Gothic
• Complexity (of analysis)
or Simplicity (in reduced
form)
• The Future:
Contaminated
cosmopolitanism or
recurrent sameness
Images: http://0.tqn.com/d/architecture/1/0/M/q/Versailles51375217sm.jpg
http://www.bestourism.com/medias/dfp/6389
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Conclusion
• Soft Social Science : Humanities and Imagination
and Social Sciences and Information
• Multi- or Interdisciplinary Studies vs. Disciplinary
Studies
• Pattern recognition vs variable-based analysis
• Vouching vs Clinching Arguments (Nancy
Cartwright)
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Conclusion
• My research agenda
• Civilizations in the global ecumene
– Adding global process: Human rights and human
welfare
– Adding actors (empire, states, polities, diasporas)
• American Civilization and Americanization
– Statist issues: Law, public diplomacy
– Societal issues: popular culture, religion
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Beyond East and West: Kipling
• Rudyard Kipling’s Ballad of East and West:
“Oh East is East and West is West and never the twain
shall meet
Till earth and sky stand presently at God’s great
Judgment seat…..
But there is neither East nor West, border nor breed
nor birth
When two strong men stand face to face, tho they
come from the ends of the earth.”
32