Huntington for President?

This Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told ABC reporter George Stephanopoulos that the western conflict with ISIS “is a clash of civilizations,” and that “there is no middle ground on this.”  He added that “Of course, not all Muslims are not members of violent jihadist groups, but there is a global jihadist movement in the world, motivated by their interpretation of Islam, in this case Sunni Islam, in the case of ISIS, and it needs to be confronted for what it is. This is not a geopolitical movement. It’s a religiously oriented movement.”

Here is another video of Rubio further explaining his perception of the conflict:

Senator Rubio is a likely contender for the Republican nomination, so his views warrant discussion. In this case, it is notable that Marco Rubio would seemingly directly reference Huntington’s claim. It implies that the senator is familiar with IR theory to some extent (as he should be), and implies that he does not see a potential for peace in dealing with ISIS (perhaps rightly so). This interview clip also informs us about how he would likely go about dealing with ISIS as the president. It seems that the world’s constructivists have reason to worry about a Rubio presidency; he is evidently not open to the idea that the West’s relationship with the Islamic State can be pushed in a different direction, or slowly molded with the help of international organizations or gestures of good will and kindness. Whether this disqualifies him or works against him in the eyes of the American citizens is unknown, but it seems unlikely that many people will take issue with a hard-line stance on the Islamic State.