Clash of civilisations

The clash of civilisations thesis has been employed as a theoretical construct to ostracise and discredit Muslims the world over. For want of a better understanding of the dynamics of global conflict, Samuel Huntington himself sort of recanted his Clash of Civilizations theory in his book, ‘Who are we?’ In this book he propounded the concept of a clash not between civilisations but between the forces of civilisation and barbarism. Muslim alienation and radicalisation is a result of a pervasive feeling of ‘relative deprivation’ rooted in human insecurity.
According to Mark Duffield in ‘Global Governance and the New Wars’, the western model of development to alleviate the human security deficit in under-developed societies is driven by a desire on the part of western societies to protect their own liberal democratic peace from the tumult in underdeveloped societies. In fact the ‘securitisation’ of threats in developing countries by the developed countries is rooted in a selfish motive to protect western consumerist societies from instabilities brewing in unstable societies of developing countries. The need therefore is to effect transformative conflict resolution strategies to change the conditions leading towards conflict and instability in a society instead of offering palliatives of development aid solutions that do not alter the fundamental structure of inequity fuelling instability.
Brig (r) Raashid Wali Janjua
Rawalpindi