Iranian college students' democratic demonstrations have lasted over a week in Tehran. After the 1979 Iranian Revolu-tion, the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini formed a religious government in accordance with the Koran. He strongly rejected Western culture and killed those who held views different from his own. Today, those youngsters' fight against the Islamic regime seems somewhat abrupt. As we admire their bravery, the movement also leads us to think: When will the tide of democracy advance to all the tyrannical areas of the world? Will this really happen someday?
The Cold War confrontation between the communist and capitalist camps is over. American author Francis Fukuyama's book The End of History and The Last Man, predicted that confrontation between different cultures will no longer exist. According to Fukuyama, the lifestyle of Western democracy and capitalism will be unstoppable, and is likely to eventually be accepted by all nations.
On the other hand, the American academic Samuel Hunting-ton, in The Clash of Civiliza-tions and the Remaking of World Order, said that the world will never evolve into a single civilization. "Social identity will be increasingly important in the future and the world will be shaped in large measure by the interactions among seven or eight major civilizations ... The most important conflicts of the future will occur along the cultural fault lines separating these civilizations from one another," he said.
The Sept. 11 attacks were seen by many as disproving Fukuyama's prediction. Some even mocked him by calling the incident the end of "the end of history."
Apart from an Islamic civilization that constantly confronts the West, Singapore's promotion of "Asian values" is also a reason for East Asian countries to walk their own way and compete with the West -- while they simultaneously pursue free-market wealth and refuse political liberalization.
In response to such criticism, Fukuyama pointed out in an article in the Wall Street Journal that the Islamic world's anger over the West is in fact irrelevant to the difficulty of cultural integration. Rather, it's a result of the rage caused by the prosperity and arrogance of the West and the decline and adversity of the Islamic world that had a glorious history in the past. Fukuyama, however, underestimated the complexity of the issue.
Various contradictions do exist between Western culture and other countries. But the source of conflict is not some cultural factors that are absolutely incompatible with Western democracy. The real problem is bullying imperialism. But it's extremely difficult to resolve the consequences of such unequal relations. Besides, if the strong continues to bully the weak and never gives up dominating others, we can never dismiss the sadness in a thousand years and world peace will never be achieved.
Fukuyama is too naive. The confrontation between communism and capitalism in the past should never be interpreted merely as a cultural conflict, because it was in fact a conflict of a higher class bullying the lower one. The situation remains when the oppressors and those being oppressed are replaced by different races or nations. As a result, those being oppressed can create and expand this sentiment of sorrow to arouse and manipulate their people. So people of those weak countries often bring greater misfortune to themselves.
If we want to avoid future conflicts, apart from praying that those leading powers will have a conscience, people of those weak countries should also open their eyes and take the right path, so as to have a brighter future.
Lin Li is an associate professor in the Graduate Institute of European Studies at Tamkang University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing
A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers led by the party’s legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?) are to visit Beijing for four days this week, but some have questioned the timing and purpose of the visit, which demonstrates the KMT caucus’ increasing arrogance. Fu on Wednesday last week confirmed that following an invitation by Beijing, he would lead a group of lawmakers to China from Thursday to Sunday to discuss tourism and agricultural exports, but he refused to say whether they would meet with Chinese officials. That the visit is taking place during the legislative session and in the aftermath