Shared culture legitimates a dominant state’s leadership over its region

Evidence

A world in which core states play a leading or dominating role is a spheres-of influence world. But it is also a world in which the exercise of influence by the core state is tempered and moderated by the common culture it shares with member states of its civilization. Cultural commonality legitimates the leadership and order-imposing role of the core state for both member states and for the external powers and institutions. It is thus futile to do as U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali did in 1994 and promulgate a rule of “sphere of influence keeping” that no more than one-third of the U.N. peacekeeping force should be provided by the dominant regional power. Such a requirement defies the geopolitical reality that in any given region where there is a dominant state peace can be achieved and maintained only through the leadership of that state. The United Nations is no alternative to regional power, and regional power becomes responsible and legitimate when exercised by core states in relation to other members of their civilization. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 423

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to ‘On Sacrifice’ theme of how legitimacy is granted to authority in stratified systems, and to Milgrom’s work on how institutions earn legitimacy in trade communities. — connects to: States co-opt evolved kin and in-group tendencies to manufacture devoted actors. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 27