Cultural Differences and Intercultural Conflict

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Coursework – Individual Work Essay Topic: Cultural differences and (inter)cultural conflict Name: [Sebastian Cremer]; Matriculation Number: [11099949] Date of submission: January 9th, 2014 Program: GlobalMBA Course: Intercultural Communication Instructor: Prof. Dr. Elke Schuch Table of contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Critical examination of Huntington’s thesis 4 3. Investigation of two major world conflicts 7 3.1 Second Iraq War 7 3.2 Conflict between North and South Korea 9 4. Conclusion 10 References 11 1. Introduction In 1993 the North-American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington published an article concerning a possible “clash of civilizations” in the “Foreign Affairs” magazine. This scientific work later served him as basis for his book “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order” published in 1996. According to Huntington’s theory, conflicts in our world are conditioned by differences in civilizations. In the course of this essay it will be critically examined, whether conflicts these days most frequently occur because of cultural differences, or if the conflicts’ reasons are rather ideologically and Huntington’s thesis lacks some accuracy. In order to get to this answer, at first it is necessary to have a closer look at the theory of Samuel P. Huntington and to point out major characteristics. As a next step, the validity of Huntington’s thesis will be verified on the basis of two contemporary conflicts, namely the second Iraq War and the Korea Conflict. After investigating the background these conflicts, it will be analyzed, by what degree these conflicts are caused by cultural differences or by probable other factors like diverging ideologies. As a final step, conclusions of the findings are drawn. Since this coursework only offers limited space for two conflict examples, no claims to completeness are

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