The ideal of civilisation: Its origins and socio‐political character

There has been a revival in the use of the terms ‘civilisation’ and ‘civilisations’ to describe and explain events in the social sciences and humanities, nowhere more so than in politics and international affairs. This revival has seen the terms interpreted and applied in a variety of manners and different…

To Rethink Standards of Civilisation, Start with the End

Many people recognise that there is a need to distinguish between states in the international system, such as on the basis of legitimacy. For much of the system’s history the means of drawing such distinctions have been standards of civilisation. For some, the need to divide and separate is unavoidable;…

Globalisation and the shifting Standard of Civilization in international society

Globalisation and the shifting Standard of Civilization in international society Skip navigation The Australian National University The Australian National University Open Research Library Search query Search Skip navigation Home About Contribute Publishing Policy Copyright Contact Statistics My Open Research close My Open Research Your list of unfinished submissions or submissions…

Civilization and Its Consequences

This article outlines the origins and meanings of the concept of civilization in Western political thought. In doing so it necessarily explores the nature of the relationship between civilization and closely related ideas such as progress and modernity. In exploring these concepts, some of their less savory aspects are revealed,…

The Thin Ice of Civilization

It is widely accepted that as time passes, the more we progress as both a species and as individual human beings; the more we progress, the more civilized we become individually and collectively; the more civilized we become, the further we are removed from the vestiges of savagery and barbarism.…

Eurocentrism and civilization

In his study of the word civilization, the French linguist Émile Benveniste (1971: 289) states, ‘the whole history of modern thought and the principal intellectual achievements in the western world are connected with the creation and handling of a few dozen essential words which are all the common possession of…