The Standard of 'Civilization' in International Society

Abstract

PrefaceWe all know something about what a standard of 'civilization' is and how it functions.Anyone who has tried to join a club, a college, or a society of some kind understands that certain standards (the requirements of which are not necessarily explicit) distinguish between those who will be invited to become members from those who will not. An international standard of 'civilization' is inevitably appealed to when embassy officials are taken hostage; when unarmed commercial airliners are shot down ; when human rights are systematically violated; or when international sensibilities are otherwise outraged. Pointed criticisms such as 'It was a barbarous act by an uncivilized country', or 'It is a crime against the international society of civilized states', are more than moralistic eye-wash: no country wants to be ostracized as 'uncivilized'. Even those countries most intent on pursuing their individual interests recognize the need for, and thereby usually acquiesce to some degree in, certain collective standards of international conduct.The possibility of enforcing international norms globally became a reality for the first time during the nineteenth century as the European international system expanded. However, the imposition of Europe's standard of 'civilization' on the non-European world precipitated a confrontation of cultural systems as fundamentally irreconcilable standards of 'civilization' clashed with each other.The first part of this book examines these events from the European perspective. The second part of this book looks at the cultural humiliation, dislocation, and accommodation that non-European countries experienced as they struggled, or were forced, to make the European standard of 'civilization' their own. Both sections of this book also consider the extent to which universal standards have, as part of a greater global transformation toward modernity, emerged to transcend the political and cultural diversity that characterized the international society in the past.As much as possible, this book portrays the evolution of the standard of 'civilization' through the words, thoughts, and 'unspoken assumptions' of those who wrestled with the natures of their own and foreign civilizations according to the cultural perceptions of their own times. As T. S. Eliot noted in 'Tradition and the Individual Talent', it is easy to criticize those of an earlier age for what they did not know or could not see. Yet, what we know or see now benefits from the trials and errors of those being criticized. Future ages will no doubt look back on our efforts to conduct and understand international affairs with the same advantage of hindsight.This is a book as much about the future of international society as about its past. Indeed, different cultural traditions as well as different political ideologies, vying with each other in a struggle for power in our day, have again made cultural standards and norms a sensitive issue. No country willingly submits to what it considers to be cultural imperialism; nor does any country passively accept accusations that it is perpetrating cultural imperialism. Both, then, for developing and for developed countries, the dilemmas of intercultural competition and coexistence become increasingly real and pressing. And, in a modern context, the conundrum remains: How can international standards and norms be delineated, promulgated, and enforced without infringing on legitimate cultural sovereignty? ,