Is Western civilisation under siege?

Recorded at the Battle of Ideas festival 2024 on Saturday 19 October at Church House, Westminster.

ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION

We seem to have a new adjective when discussing big social and political problems today: civilisational. Issues as varied as artificial intelligence, immigration, demographic change, wars or even anti-social behaviour are all described as ‘civilisational’ challenges. Emmanuel Macron, describing the war in Ukraine and the challenges facing the European Union, declared in 2024 that ‘our civilisation is under threat’.

But what is the threat to Western civilisation? Some focus on the threat posed by radical Islamism – Hamas or ISIS seem intent on engaging in particularly barbaric attacks on what they see as the ungodliness of Western civilisation. Others point to alternative civilisation states like Russia or China, which position themselves against Western civilisational ideas like tolerance, democracy or free speech.

But sometimes the threat seems much closer to home. A constellation of trends – from seeing the West as tainted by colonialism to an identity politics which prioritises non-Western identities – seem to have coalesced into a powerful mood of hostility to the West within a portion of the West itself. As an anti-Israel student group from Columbia University in the US put it: ‘We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilisation.’

Others point to more street-level issues. In the abstract, an easy-going sense of civility is what Western societies pride as their distinctive self-image. But in recent years, anti-social behaviour has seemed to capture a sense of moral panic. Street brawls, phone-snatchings, people relieving themselves in public – all of these are posted to social media with the caption ‘the West has fallen’. Perhaps linked is the fact that the economic picture is hardly rosy, either. A sense of stagnation and complacency defines many Western economies. Extreme Green protesters – often guilty of anti-social behaviour themselves – may want to deindustrialise the West, but high-energy prices and endless regulations might be doing it anyway.

It’s not uncommon to hear people describe things as ‘falling apart’ in Western civilisations. Fundamentally, is this an issue of self-belief? In Kenneth Clark’s famous documentary, Civilisation: A personal view, he suggests that ‘it is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation’. Amid falling birth-rates or ritual apologies for Western history, has Western society itself lost confidence in its ideals, history and values?

Perhaps the threat of civilisational challenge is what is needed to kickstart a new renaissance in the West. When some mention Russia, China or even Islamism as civilisational competitors, are they pointing to a real threat or displaying their own uneasiness about the West? And does the West need to return to its legacy – Homer, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Proust, Cézanne or Joyce – to find something to inspire?

SPEAKERS
Professor Bill Durodié
chair of International Relations, department of politics, languages and international studies, University of Bath

Dr Tiffany Jenkins
writer and broadcaster; author, Strangers and Intimates (forthcoming) and Keeping Their Marbles

Dr Sean Lang
visiting fellow, Anglia Ruskin University; author, First World War for Dummies and What History Do We Need?; fellow, Historical Association; artistic director, BOATS Theatre

Jacob Phillips
professor of systematic theology, St Mary’s University, Twickenham; author, Obedience is Freedom

Peter Whittle
founder and director, New Culture Forum; host, NCF YouTube channel

CHAIR
Jacob Reynolds
head of policy, MCC Brussels; associate fellow, Academy of Ideas