TEXT 2

THE CLASH OF EMOTIONS - Fear, Humiliation, Hope and the New World Order

Dominique Moisi

Thirteen years ago, Samuel Huntington argued that a “clash of civilizations" was about to dominate world politics, with culture, along with national interests and political ideology, becoming a geopolitical fault line. Events since then have proved Huntington’s Vision more right than wrong. Yet what has not been recognized sufficiently is that today the world faces (7) what might be called a “clash of emotions" as well (2). The Western world displays a culture of fear, the Arab and Muslim worlds are trapped in a culture of humiliation, and much of Asia displays a culture of hope. Instead of being united by their fears, the twin pillars of the West, the United States and Europe, are more often divided by them (8) - or rather, divided by how best to confront or transcend them. The culture of humiliation, in contrast, helps unite (9) the Muslim world around its most radical forces and has led to a culture of hatred. The chief beneficiaries of the deadly encounter between the forces of fear and the forces of humiliation are the bystanders in the culture of hope, who have been able to concentrate on creating a better future for themselves.

These moods, of course, are not universal within each region, and there are some areas, such as Russia and parts of Latin America, that seem to display all of them simultaneously (3). But their dynamics and interactions will help shape the world for years to come.

[...]

In confronting this clash of emotions, the first priority for the West should be to recognize the nature of the threat (4) that the Muslim world’s culture of humiliation poses to Europe and the United States. Denying the threat’s existence or responding to it in the wrong way are equally dangerous choices. Neither appeasement nor military Solutions alone will suffice. The war that is unfolding is one that the culture of humiliation cannot win, but it is a war nonetheless (10) and one that the West can lose (5) by continuing to be divided or by betraying its liberal values and its respect for law and the individual. The challenge is figuring out how to instill a sufficient sense of hope and progress in Muslim societies so that despair and anger do not send the masses into the radicals’ arms.

In that regard, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears more than ever as a microcosm of and possibly a precedent for what the world is becoming (1). Israel is the West, surrounded by the culture of humiliation and dreaming of escape from a dangerous region and of reentry into a culture of hope. But it must find a solution to the Palestinian problem first (6), or else the escape will not be possible. So, too, Europe and the United States seek to permanently banish (11) their fears but will be able to do so only by finding a way to help the Muslim world solve its problems.

(from Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007.)

Moisi believes that the West should give the highest priority to: