![]() ![]() ![]() In other words, cultural (a preferable term to civilisational) aspects shape societies' worldviews, but culture is not an impermeable barrier to a wider model of order that can bring different regimes together. ![]() "In our time the quest for world order will require relating the perceptions of societies whose realities have largely been self-contained," Kissinger argues. Kissinger notes that when he told Chinese premier Zhou Enlai that China seemed mysterious, Zhou pointed out that China was not at all mysterious to 900 million of his compatriots. This may sound like Samuel Huntington's idea of the "clash of civilisations", but actually it is more like a bracing mixture of Metternichian pragmatism and – more unexpectedly – Edward Said's critique of "Orientalism". Four specific conceptions of "order" attract most of his attention: the European system, specifically its Westphalian model of sovereign states with equal status within the system an Islamic system based on a wider idea of an ummah, or community a Chinese system based on traditional ideas of the Middle Kingdom as a great regional power and the American order, finding a new purpose a century ago under Woodrow Wilson, eventually dominant across the globe, and now under unprecedented pressure. The book circles much of the globe, covering India, Europe, China and the Middle East. ![]()
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