Culture Conflict in Sudan

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Culture is an essential part of conflict and conflict resolution. Cultures are what shapes our perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and other. We are all born individuals; then we are raised, socialized and sensitized to the norms of our respective civilizations which led us to identify consciously and unconsciously to our societies. In 1993, Samuel Huntington wrote an influential paper that was published in Foreign Affairs titled “ Clash of the Civilizations.” Huntington states, “The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural (Huntington 1993, 1).” According to Huntington, cultural identities bind people together more fastidiously than those identities of nation state citizenship. Religion and culture are huge factors in people’s motivations from business, to politics, down to personal interactions. At the macro level Huntington adds, “Differences in religion and culture create difference over policy issues ranging from human rights to immigration to trade and commerce to the environment (Huntington 1993, 5).” Huntington describes the current riffs between civilizations as fault lines, elaborating “fault lines between civilizations are replacing the political and ideological boundaries of the Cold War as the flash point for crisis and bloodshed (Huntington 1993, 29).” The fault line between Christianity and Islam has seen conflict for 1,300 years but today we are witnessing the fault lines reemerge and deepen. In this paper I will discuss what historical events and policies led to the current conditions in Sudan, how the conflict in Sudan illustrates and supports Huntington’s theory, and I will examine how this conflict has effected United States foreign policy.

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...Economist - World News, Politics, Economics, Business & Finance. http://www.economist.com/node/347120 (accessed November 4, 2011).

Pakenham, Thomas. The scramble for Africa, 1876-1912. New York: Random House, 1991.

Pillar, Paul. "Sudan and the Sanctions Trap." The National Interest. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/sudan-the-sanctions-trap-5591 (accessed November 4, 2011).

Public Broadcasting Service. 2011. "Sahel." PBS. www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/explore/sahel/sahel_overview.html. (accessed November 4, 2011).

Salopek, Paul. “Lost in the Sahel.” National Geographic. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/04/sahel/paul-salopek-text.html. (accessed November 5, 2011).

“Context: Why the Conflict? Why in Sudan?” World Savvy Monitor. http://worldsavvy.org/monitor/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=71. (accessed November 4, 2011).

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