ABSTRACT
A world in which cultural identities—ethnic, national, religious, civilizational—are central, and cultural affinities and differences shape the alliances, antagonisms, and policies of states has three broad implications for the West generally and for the United States in particular. Cultural and civilizational diversity challenges the Western and particularly American belief in the universal relevance of Western culture. Western universalism is dangerous to the world because it could lead to a major intercivilizational war between core states and it is dangerous to the West because it could lead to defeat of the West. The abstention rule that core states abstain from intervention in conflicts in other civilizations is the first requirement of peace in a multicivilizational, multipolar world. The preservation of the United States and the West requires the renewal of Western identity. A relevant effort to identify such commonalities in a very small place occurred in Singapore in the early 1990s.
