“The Power and the Passion”: Civilizational Identity and Alterity in the Wake of September 11

Abstract

Without a doubt, the politics of identity are now firmly and prominently placed on the agenda of IR. Events in the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia have increasingly drawn attention to the importance of how communities perceive themselves and others. This renewed interest in identity and world politics has often focused on national and ethnic identity. By comparison, the concept of civilizational identity may seem a rarefied if not antiquated level at which to engage with questions of identity, too broad and removed from the experience of everyday life and politics to be truly useful. However, the dramatic events of September 11, 2001 demonstrated that issues of identity written on the broad level of cultural identity can be deeply relevant to the conduct of contemporary world politics at the global level of “high politics,” directly engaging the attention of political leaders throughout the world. Politics, religion, and class are interwoven in a manner that fuses the power of politics with the passion of belonging to a broader identity.