While civilizational rhetoric in the West reflects a sense of threat, globally it is recognition-seeking. Common to all civilizationalisms, however, is a blurring of the distinction between authoritarianism and democracy.
Hans Kundnani
Open Society Foundations Ideas Workshop Fellow and a Visiting Professor of Practice in the European Institute at the London School of Economics. His latest book is Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project (London: Hurst, 2023).
Articles
‘Eurowhiteness’
Europe’s civilizational turn
From migration to foreign policy, Europe has undergone an identitarian shift. Both far-right politicians and pro-European voices are framing external influences as civilizational threats, reviving the link between Europe and whiteness.