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Abstract
One of the works that forged the Western geopolitical imagination was The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington. This book, which has been dealt with primarily as a political, sociological work, is imbued by schemes and categories coming from the geographical and geopolitical. My contribution shows that Huntington’s geopolitical approach, that enjoyed a huge success in the world, has an origin in USA imperialism and that it has a much stronger impact than usually noticed. Here I will argue that the Clash of civilizations thesis is based on a conscious blindness with regard to the nature of contemporary societies and by a strong internal contradiction between its description of the world market and its interpretation of culture. These blind spots reveal the main focus of Huntington’s approach: the celebration of homogeneity inside each civilization – and in particular the protection of the West against any de-westernization. My contribution’s aim is therefore: firstly, to show that his geopolitical model comes from a solid tradition in the American hegemonic history; secondly, that its main target is to recreate a stable internal order and homogeneity inside the western civilization, and finally that the growing recent use of this paradigm can lead to increasing tensions between groups and individuals.
