Edward Snowden: The Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory has revisited again

To understand why US is so zealous to preserve its dominance as the sole power of the world by engaging itself in spying activities, we have to revisit again the Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory.

Since the September 11, 2001, Samuel P. Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory has become vital to analyse the pattern of global conflicts and issues involving international relations. The collapse of communism and the dismantling of Eastern bloc left a vacuum and impeccably the United States of America which is representing the West become the sole superpower of the world. Since then, the West revived the old rivalries between Western and Eastern civilizations.

The argument that Huntington put forward in his theory understandably is one fouled by Western viewpoints. There is no concrete consideration given to Eastern values. The refutable explanations given in his article are clearly undermining the basic concept of the Eastern values. The negative picture, which has been portrayed, rather damages the basic requirements to preserve global peace and security.

Huntington wants the West to know the ‘enemy’ in order to safeguard the interests of the West on global affairs. The fear that he has further can be observed in his argument that Eastern Civilizations will collaborate together and eventually go against with the West in future. These negative projections are obviously a collective and well devised plan of the West with the intention of undermining east.

Edward Snowden and Julian Assange is the end product of Huntington’s theory. Both of them originated from West and had depth knowledge of the West using various methods and modes to infringe the fundamental rights of the people not only in West also the other part of the world.

Snowden, who worked for US National Security Agency revealed that the US is using surveillance program to collected emails, chat logs and other data from notable software companies.

Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group Wikileakes, exposed various government documents especially from US that indicated unauthorized surveillance activities.

Huntington’s theory is based on imperialism. Edward Said in his book, Orientalism, said that the West has different view on East. The West always sees East as threat to the dominance of West on world affairs. Therefore the West will do whatever possible to contain the advancement of East on global stage.

The issue of morality and ethical expectations in handling of Snowden and Assange are not under consideration of the West. By compelling other countries to extradite both of them to US had showed the mind of the imperialist. In hypothetically if someone has done espionage work for West especially for US that person will be protected in the name of human rights. In 2004, Rabinder Singh an Indian intelligence officer who has identified as the spy was on the payroll of CIA and now under the protection program of US even though India had requested for his extradition.

This shows that the legality and notion of the freedom of people and the countries under the surveillance of the US is immaterial for them. In name national security and determination to control the global affairs, US can infringe the basic fundamental rights of people and ignored the consensus on international norms to safeguard their sole interest. Their act is the reflection of the Huntington’s where to maintain their dominance of the world affairs they do any means even though it had adverse implications on mankind and geopolitics. These acts will undermine the sovereignty of the countries and fundamental rights of the people as the whole.

Therefore the imperialist of mind of US is no longer suitable in dealing with the issues concerning international relations and must be made redundant because their own citizens no longer subscribe to such notions any longer.  

Kuala Lumpur.