Routledge WhFmOoup I i 8 Whje GloBdE r m F a e of I I l i k a l Moderates f Nstract In contrast to tk ckim t W the most s n uznt fiult line in contemporay ofkhe West and all others this essay argues t b f gh d gin is behoeen the cid we s c h w betweep thse dvance their values through violence and those who rely gers ora both af which are p r m t in d l clzailisafims is the greatest source of m t in the p f dera d Modet ztes r came in many stripes s m e are liberal such as Reforp Javs a d Social Dmocrats while most others are illx eral including many Iusliznreli ous leaders All modertes howaerr share in common a principled reject v i o h a Polls and reports from around the wsrld bear out that a cmuictian of the vdue of pnsuasiola over coercion does not depend on faith in democracy m secularism West should afly ifsetf with such moderakes no matter how liberal or illiberal their orientation n Introduction The feult line that defines the dash of mord cultures and powers in the postCold War era drxsnot run between c i d h t i o l sbut within them It divides fie beliefs oi those who hold that they are justified in advancing their values and interests by the use of force from here on violent beliefs and the beliefs held by those who seek to rely on persuasion education and leadership persuasive beliefs True those who believe in persuasion as the murce of legitimacy of their political actions recognise exceptional aonditions under which force may be used for example in what they consider a just war And those who believe in force as a majm btrwnent of foreign and domestic policy do also use persuasion However we shall see that the differences between the two sets of beliefs and their followers are readily discernible and d much moral and poWcal consequence Above all I will try to show that the schism between them is the most important fault line in the contemporary world it is at the heart of the struggle over who will shape the internationalsystem and over how it ought to be shaped It is empirically wrong morally faulty and strategically ill advised to hold that the preeminent global confrontation of our time is between the civilisation of the West and all others especially that of the followers of the Prophet Muhammad the Muslims as Samuel Huntington has famously argued in his book The CIash 4 1 am indebted to Derek Mitchell for extensive research assistance and numerous editorial suggestions for this essay and to Kristen Bell for comments on an earlier draft ISSN 0955 7571 print ISSN 1474 449X online 06 030369 17 O 2006 Centre of International Studies DOI 10 1080 09557570600869242 370 Amitai Etzioni Civilizationsand the Remaking of World 0rdw 2 I will shortly point to those who hold violent beliefs whether they are called Crusaders Jihadistsor merely terroristsin all major belief systems both religious and secular Eastern and Western Moreover I will show that in all these civilisations there are also those who disavow the use of violence to advance their beliefs and instead seek to rely as much as possible on appealing to the values and worldviews of those they seek to convert In other words I argue that the true fault line facing the world today runs through civilisations rather than between them dividing each into two campsthose who see violence as a major and legitimate tool and those who view the use of force as abhorrent and instead rely largely on normative appeals In more colloquial terms the fault line divides those of the sword from those of the word As someone who killed and saw many killed long before reaching the age of twenty I may as well state up front from which camp I hail I still pain for every life lost whether it was one of ours or theirs I deeply regret every death I helped inflict even though I was acting to defend those I loved from those who attacked us Ever since I turned twenty when I first sat at the feet of Martin Buber I have been somewhat of a persuader 3 I am not a pacifist but someone who holds that one is morally obligated to exhaust all other means possible before liking one s arms and that force should be applied only when there is a true imminent and severe danger Above all I maintain that making a compehg case for one s cause is both morally right and much more effective in the long run than the violent alternatives Needless to say I am hardly alone In effect it is a main thesis of this essay that those who hold persuasive beliefs currently outnumber those who hold violent beliefs in all major civilisations some illustrative data follow below Most importantly we ought to recognise that the persuaders of the world are the natural allies of anyone who rises against the world of terror and in effect all other forms of violence Though I cannot fully demonstrate this point in the confines of this essay I suggest that those on the persuasive side of the fault line today include as distinct from earlier historical periods the majority of Muslims especially in nations such as Indonesia Morocco Bangladesh and Turkey despite some recent increases in radical Islam in these nations as well as the majority of Hindus Buddhists Christians Jews socialists and many other groups They are all potential members of a persuasive alliance a coalition of people who seek first and foremost to draw on normative power4rather than on force in forming a new global order and in sustaining domestic regimes The Normative Importance of the Fault Line All societies and groups whether religious or secular seek to sustain a measure of social order However forcing people to adopt whatever behaviour a given belief system extols is morally speaking by far the worst option for maintaining The us against them friend versus foe characterisation of international relations is echoed in the work of the German political theorist Carl Schrnitt particularly in his essay The Concepf of the Political 1932 For more discussion of my odyssey see Etzioni 2003 4 On the concept of normative power a sub category of soft power see Etzioni 1975 The Global Importme of lllikd Moderates 372 h wmwe then Gmxcicm the term is used here to sinam the e x her measure of mtrol of physical fore greatly tzmrkds fd o r m d c h o i i it f does nat via i cmmpletdy and thus deprives f d a a lofs their aubmrn R e s p a bhwntan dignity entails that the a be fnx t o d e r d h U o w h wi h s e r a 3 e s s m c e o c d m i s to ndhfy this t reeclarn by faxing a mmzsecold adim m the p e n at …
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