Background
American republic, separated by time and Atlantic Ocean, in parallel to its European lineage, over the centuries in my observation has morphed into a civilization of its own kind. Americans have so far not needed to appreciate this slow departure because of the shared racial supremacy and the power it brought along by its continued association. They have up till now, not only celebrated this common heritage with the Europeans & made kinship alliances with other states of similar cultural roots; they have fought with their money and blood the two world wars in support of and to the rescue of the Western Europeans.
While the Atlantists (USA and Europeans) celebrate their common racial & cultural origins, and share a common strategic vision; America’s own very social structure has insidiously taken a form which is very different from both it’s allies and the rest of the West. It has now morphed into a civilization of its own.
Cultural Shift and Drift
This slow cultural shift happened primarily due to the initial ideological differences that had led to the American independence. Other factors including but not limited to were its distance from the continental Europe, the Atlantic slave trade & all future waves of immigrations which brought along their respective culture’s contribution into the American melting pot.
This is reflected in American social hierarchy, health & economic system, public social safety network, cuisines, public holidays, sports, pop culture and even their language. All subtly but palpably deviated from the telos and trajectories of the Europe and its Union. This unique American milieu made America the land of opportunity that we all so adore and admire.
We must first accept & understand that this reality has evolved in a very pernicious manner and it is not yet an available part of the mainstream political diagnosis & discourse. With these cultural commons and their later drift & shift set as a priori, we move to the next layer of emulation and commonality.
Roman Emulation
We also observe two other common denominators. One, in the American form of government and second, in the Christian Faith; which sixty five percent of its citizens subscribe to. Firstly, I agree with the historian Will Durant that with respect to the form and writ of governance America has been modeling the Roman Empire of first few centuries of the first millennium. We find many imperial and exploitative parallels in the manner it conducts its state’s business and projects her power across the globe. And secondly, but of no lesser importance, is that it’s religion and faith too is shared with the Constantinean Rome and Europe of the late antiquity (200-700 c.e.). Therefore unsurprisingly both these transatlantic cultures identify themselves as posterity and flag bearers of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Modern Nation State
United States with other European colonial powers, with above highlighted commonalities i.e (I) European decent, (II) Roman Governance Model & (III) Judeo-Christian roots now established, we move on to see that they adopt yet another commonality. Which is the framework of sovereign national democratic rule i.e. (IV) The Nation State.
We observe that over the past five or six centuries these countries (Nations) have mastered the art of Nation State system to their economic, political and common racial advantage. This is an unfortunate but an established fact of history with a large body of Post-colonialism literature to its support. Briefly, to refresh memory of my readers, The Nation State concept was originally a European system construct of the 1600s after the peace of Westphalia which was the need for a stable and predictable European commerce of that age. For reasons beyond the scope of this note I’ll leave this here for now.
From Nation to Civilization State
I have long contested, that not only this Nation State construct is failing by the decade purely by its zero-sum and unstable virtues, it may have just outlived its usefulness when current global problems of climate change and water scarcity, just to name a couple need to be addressed. We are also observing this crumbling of the cookie at its margins with the development of the schism/s between the continental Europe interests and the continental US interests. And with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine this schism is increasing and is bringing to bare, some of the deep seated differences within the EU & other Western alliances. Is this an inter civilizational divide in lines with western and eastern Roman Empire…we are not sure yet.
The Civilization-State:
Civilizations have come and gone. With inability to look into the future with certainty humans tend to find answers & solace in their past. And what is better to a humiliated present than a glorified past. What we are now seeing and about to explore a little more is not something new, but it is certainly new to modern state architecture of the Nation States map.
We are now beginning to see two current Nation States switching their identity to a new framework of Civilization-States e.g. Indic & Sinic civilizations asserting and wanting to be recognized not as Nation but as Civilizations. Muslim & Christian Orthodox remain the other two important remaining civilizations if we agree on leaving African and South American civilizations aside for the purpose of this article’s Asian focus.
Both Chinese and Indian diplomats are beginning to introduce themselves to the world leaders as representatives of Civilization-States and are refusing to accept & behave as Nation States are expected to in the western led loosely rule based international liberal order (IRBILO). There are some unique differences between these two frameworks. A big one for our understanding can be that “as a civilization-state, China or for that matter India has it that it is organized around culture rather than politics. For a civilization-state, cultural ties are potentially more important than the mere legal status of citizenship. Linked to a civilization, the state has the paramount task of protecting a specific cultural tradition. Its reach encompasses all the regions where that culture is dominant’ [sic].
The global power structure (as in animal kingdom) depends of coalitions and alliances. In Asia we are seeing this change happen and US would now be making alliances not with Nation States, rather with countries who are beginning to assert themselves as Civilization-States. CCP is an obvious example & BJP too is moving away towards it as they firmly believe Hindus are a civilization and India not just a country. So the future alliances and conflicts insofar Asia is concerned, are going to be between these Civilizations, as Samuel Huntington’s important Foreign Affairs 1993 paper on “The Clash of the Civilizations?” predicts. Very important!
This segue is becoming a problem for the hagemon and the current superpower. Not only it has to adapt to these new realties where it must, it also must forbid remaining civilizational coalitions to occur.
Pakistan’s conundrum
If this be the case then, Pakistan is unique as it can trace itself both to Indic as well as Islamic civilization. With the first option we have a love-hate mixed feelings. And while the other camp is pseudo-available; it is too fragmented and divided even to acknowledge this new reality, let alone planning to project themselves as an Islamic Civilization State or Ummah.
Ouster of Imran Khan
This puts Pakistan in a bind. If it cannot become a Civilization State of it’s own soon enough in next 10-20 years (which in theory it can’t), it’s short term interest naturally will be to stay and try to survive as a Nation State (status quo). And yielding to, by making to stand in support of the US led Western response to the Russo-EU war, remains its obvious choice and some may say the only option. The current European conflict in its essence is in fact a clash of Civilizational Ideologies (Western vs. Orthodox + Sinic) and nothing else.
Understand that Imran Khan’s administration’s demise was not solely due to its poor governance, inflation, liking of the former Inter Service Intelligence chief (Lt. Gen Faiz) and misunderstandings with the all powerful Chief of Pakistani Army, or that he was a hurdle in the way of US policy for Af-Pak—rather far from holistic. Imran Khan provided that charismatic Islamic Socialist leader who “may” lead to the Islamic Civilizational State (as opposed to current workings of a Nation-State). And that in future is then going to be very problematic for the hegemon to adapt its policies to. How practical that Pakistani shift under Imran Khan or his likes might be is a topic to be explored at another time.
Crystal bowl
Challenge for Pakistan now is how to identify itself and find its way in this new landscape yet maintain the dubious logic of the Two Nation Theory. It’s entry to these new clubs and camps is neither clear nor easy and except for checking into the Islamic Civilizational structure it has no where else to go either. OPECs reluctance to increase pumping oil is seemingly sending cold sentiments towards western cause too. Making this option equally enticing yet uncertain and fraught with dangers to existing Pakistani borders.
In this uncertainty and shifting national reorientations based on Civilizational divide, just to avoid the Domino Geopolitical Theory actualizing, Pakistan can and must not be allowed to switch sides or re-identify itself just yet.
The Pakistani political drama is ongoing and we will all have to see it unfold together. But this exegesis may help us understand where this all current chaos is stemming from.
Neo-Roman Civilization
Its also not clear yet how this hybrid structure of Nation States in the West and Civilizational States of East will play in the sandbox. What is clear is that the current power structure suits the Atlantists and the Asiatics are not going to conform to that order for long. It is a theoretical possibility that in the coming decades it may so happen that USA may acknowledge its unique Neo-Roman Civilization and decide to rebuild State relationships with India and China at their terms. It is also possible US refuses to identify and engage with such as such. The Civilization-State has a problematic propensity of mission creep. It has the potential to speak for its Civilizational kins residing outside its borders. And that is something current system disallows. Acknowledging one State (India) as such and denying the same right to another (China) will also be problematic. Coming decades will tell us more how this interaction pans out. And would largely depend on how assertive China and India are going to be in their such demands.
Hope is that to avoid a large scale conflict, with introspection US will reconfigure its foreign policy suited to its great power competition with the recognition of its new character of the Neo-Roman Civilization-State.
MQ…
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