The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Chapter One
The New Era in World Politics
Introduction: Flags and Cultural Identity
On January 3, 1992, a meeting of Russian and
American scholars took place in the auditorium
of a government building in Moscow. Two weeks
earlier the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and
the Russian Federation had become an independent
country. As a result, the statue of Lenin which
previously graced the stage of the auditorium
had disappeared and instead the flag of the
Russian Federation was now displayed on the
front wall. The only problem, one American
observed, was that the flag had been hung upside
down. After this was pointed out to the Russian
hosts, they quickly and quietly corrected the
error during the first intermission.
The years after the Cold War witnessed the
beginnings of dramatic changes in peoples'
identities and the symbols of those identities.
Global politics began to be reconfigured along
cultural lines. Upside-down flags were a sign of
the transition, but more and more the flags are
flying high and true, and Russians and other
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