The Hindu : `Civil war' within Islamic civilisation: U.S. academic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

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`Civil war' within Islamic civilisation: U.S. academic

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, FEB. 7. Terming the "clash of civilisations" theory as a "great mistake," a Harvard academic said today that a "civil war" was going on within the Islamic civilisation between moderates and extremists.

Joseph S. Nye, Dean, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at the Harvard University, said that in order to win the war against terrorism, moderates had to prevail over the extremists inside the Islamic civilisation.

Speaking at a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry gathering, Prof. Nye said the "privatisation of war" (in the form of non-State actors) had led to a profound change in world politics. "We have not seen this phenomenon before in world politics."

The Professor, who has worked in the Carter and Clinton administrations, said the use of "hard [military] power" by the United States would not lead to policy successes. A policy of unilateralism would lead Americans into deep trouble, he said.

A proponent of the use of American "soft [non-military] power," Prof. Nye said that since the U.S. was such a disproportionately powerful nation, it tended to depend too much on "hard power." Arguing that the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was a legitimate goal, he, however, disagreed with the way the military campaign in Iraq was launched.

Prof. Nye said the attack on Iraq had taken place without a "second" United Nations' Security Council resolution and intelligence information now suggested that Al-Qaeda recruitment had, in fact, gone up after the military attack.

"The only superpower cannot protect its citizens by acting alone," he said, saying that he did not believe that hard power was irrelevant. According to the Professor, the Bush Administration was "divided" between the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and other hard-line elements. Gen. Powell, he felt, had more in common with John Kerry, a front-runner to become the Democratic candidate in the presidential elections.

To a question, Prof. Nye said that he believed that a Democratic President would conduct more foreign policy affairs through the United Nations than the Republicans.

Asked about the Abdul Qadeer Khan confession on nuclear proliferation from Pakistan, the academic said it was improbable that the Pakistan Government did not know of the Pakistani scientist's "exports."

Pointing out that Pakistanis had stolen centrifuge equipment from Europe, Prof. Nye said it had been seen in the past week that Pakistan had realised the grave mistakes that had been made.

He complimented India on ensuring that no nuclear technology had leaked from the country. "India's record has been impeccable. On the other hand, Pakistan has spread this [nuclear proliferation] disease. We now have to inoculate the places where this disease has spread to."

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