Civilizationalism
See also: Civilizational States
Contextual Quote
“Civilizationism” is no minor pose.. It’s China’s long-planned strategic response to Frank Fukuyama’s “end of history” and Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” theses — a response that China’s fellow civilizationists in Russia, India, Iran, and Turkey are likewise adopting."
- David Ronfeldt [1]
Example
China’s campaign as a proponent of civilization
David Ronfeldt:
"While Xi Jinping has not personally termed China a “civilization-state,” he has long praised China’s history and importance as a civilization. In 2015 he began calling for “inter-civilization exchanges to promote harmony, inclusiveness, and respect for differences.” And in 2023 he launched China’s Global Civilization Initiative (GCI). Chinese officials are gaining influence with it in the Global South, particularly in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, and with the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Earlier Chinese initiatives for a worldwide “community of common destiny” are being folded into the GCI.
Beijing looks set to emphasize civilizational themes for years to come — on occasion overtly and showily, but often slowly and stealthily. Indeed, the GCI reads quite invitingly. Far from fretting about a “clash of civilizations” or the “end of history,” it calls for achieving coexistence and confluence through inter-civilizational dialogue. In the GCI’s rosy view, no civilization is superior to others; none ranks higher or lower. In the past, Western colonizers were wrong to claim civilizational superiority and seek hegemony; in the future, no single universal model of civilization should exist. What should grow is a “garden” of civilizations, as all parties work together to “build a community of shared future.” The GCI favors respecting the diversity of civilizations and tolerating all development paths people choose. It calls for upholding principles of equality, equity, justice, non-interference, inclusivity, harmony, and “democracy and freedom” among civilizations. It aims to strengthen people-to-people exchanges, mutual learning, dialogue, and cooperation among all civilizations. (See Xi, 2023; State Council Information Office, 2023.)
In the words of a leading Chinese historian and politician, Gao Xiang (2023), the GCI affirms the principle of “harmony without uniformity” that China has upheld “throughout its 5,000-year history.” Moreover, the GCI amounts to “a new international public good” — something Xi has criticized Washington for failing to provide."
(https://davidronfeldt.substack.com/p/organize-forums-for-us-china-dialogue)
Paul Robinson on “The Rise of Russian Civilizationism” (2025)
Paul Robinson:
“The use of civilizational rhetoric may be seen as a strategy to combat the West’s ideological hegemony and to win hearts and minds in the non-Western world by defending the rights of different societies to develop in their own way and thus to resist pressure to conform with Western norms. …
“Civilizationism denies that there is a single end to history. Instead of civilization, singular, there are civilizations, plural, and history consists of each of them progressing in its own distinct way towards its own distinct future. …
“This civilizational discourse appears to serve two political purposes. The first is domestic – it helps to consolidate national identity; the second is foreign – civilizationism serves as a means by which Russia can exercise soft power and win the support of the Global South, and so prevent the West from diplomatically isolating Russia. …
“Russia is exploiting this sentiment by allying civilizational rhetoric with references to the Soviet Union’s role in supporting anti-colonialism, thereby suggesting that Russia and the Global South are allies in a joint struggle against Western attempts to eliminate civilizational differences and impose a form of neocolonialism. …
“Western states demand diversity within societies. Civilizationism challenges them to accept diversity between societies as well.”
...
“The collapse in Russian-Western relations is not ideological in origin. Nonetheless, the tensions between the two have taken on an ideological dimension, with Russia promoting civilizationism as a means of legitimizing its position in the eyes of the non-Western world. Arguably, this is proving quite successful. The West won the ideological battle of the first Cold War. It’s not obvious as yet that it will have the same success this time around.”
(https://davidronfeldt.substack.com/p/organize-forums-for-us-china-dialogue)