‘Clash of Civilizations’ Has No Place in U.S. Foreign Policy
Playing up East-West societal differences gives Beijing an excuse for its police state.
Emperor Xi?
Photographer: Andy Wong/Getty Images
It isn’t often that high-ranking U.S. diplomats publicly invoke the ideas of ivory-tower academics. But earlier this week, the director of policy planning at the State Department, Kiron Skinner, used a controversial concept created by Harvard professor Samuel Huntington to describe America’s unfolding rivalry with China. Speaking at a Washington think tank, Skinner said that China’s rise constitutes a generational challenge that will require a generational response. She also argued that the rivalry represents a great “clash of civilizations,” the term Huntington, who died in 2008, coined in predicting what would take place after the end of the Cold War.
The Trump administration is undoubtedly right that competition with China will be a decades-long affair. Yet the “clash of civilizations” model won’t help the U.S win that competition, because it actually supports Beijing’s strategy better than America’s.