The Role of New Islamic Civilization in Shaping the Post-Hegemonic Order of Global Political Economy

The 1970’s crisis and decline of Bretton Woods order in the international political economy marks a turning point in the articulation of power and hegemony of the Western Civilization. The crisis in the current hegemonic order is not limited to the imbalance of material and spiritual foundations of the US power as the chief player of the system, but a dead end for the western civilization as the intellectual-ideological context of the existing order. Accordingly, conceptualizing the reformation of power and order in the post-Bretton Woods system on the one hand, and the possible nature of the new formation of global power influenced by other cultures and civilizations on the other, has been the focal point of political economy and international relationship theories in recent decades. The strategic question of this paper is the logic behind the formation and decline of international hegemonic order and the possibilities, in terms of articulation of power and order, beyond the potentials of western civilization. This paper uses the philosophical-ideological views of an Islamic theorist, Ibn Khaldun, to propose an interpretation of the concepts of power, order, and hegemony, which explains the process of crisis-creation in the western-oriented hegemonic order as well as the potentials of the new Islamic civilization for shaping a global order in the new formation of global power. The study assumes the logic behind the formation and decline of the global political economy order and hegemony to be a result of balance and imbalance between political, economic, and cultural structures of power and therefore, the philosophical-ideological principles of the new Islamic civilization are the prime context for a balanced model of post-hegemonic power and order.