Speaker:

Prof William A Callahan
School of Social Sciences,
Singapore Management University

Date & Time:

Wednesday, 26 November 2025
3:30pm – 5:00pm (Singapore Time)

On-site Venue:

469A Bukit Timah Rd, #06-01 Tower Block, Singapore 259770

Registration is required:

https://forms.office.com/r/Tm81M1a0mZ

Synopsis:

Since the end of the Cold War, “civilisation” has re-emerged as a way to think about world politics — going beyond the focus on ideology or nation-states. Many people associate this with Samuel Huntington’s famous “clash of civilisations” thesis, but the idea has developed further. Scholars of “Global International Relations (IR)” now use civilisation and cultural-religious identity to imagine new, post-Western world orders.

This seminar explores how the concept of “wenming” (civilisation) has become central to China’s foreign policy, especially in Xi Jinping’s Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI). Because the GCI is still vague, the talk examines two areas where China’s idea of civilisation is more concrete: Beijing’s “Ecological Civilisation” policy and the vision of the future in Liu Cixin’s science fiction.

Although many interpret the GCI as celebrating diversity and “multiple modernities,” these examples suggest something more ambitious: a single, science-driven worldview that prioritises hierarchy over equality, sameness over diversity, and presents China’s modernisation as the new global benchmark.

At a time when U.S. influence is receding under Trump 2.0, understanding this Chinese “civilisationalism” is crucial to grasp how Chinese leaders and thinkers imagine the future of world politics.