EXPIRES: 2010

WRITTEN: 1993

The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.

Samuel P. Huntington

"The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3, Summer 1993, p. 22

Written: 1993

Addressed to: the post-Cold War era

Source: "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs

Author: Samuel P. Huntington

Category: Governance

Annotation

Huntington's thesis was presented as an alternative to Fukuyama's End of History. After September 11, 2001, many read Huntington as prophetic. Critics argued he reified civilizations as coherent blocs when most conflicts were intra-civilizational. The thesis's greatest weakness was treating cultures as static; its insight was that ideology would not remain the primary organizing principle of conflict.

What Actually Happened

Post-9/11 conflicts and the rise of political Islam appeared to support the thesis. But intra-civilizational conflicts (Sunni vs. Shia, intra-European disagreements) undermined the clean 'civilizational' framework.

#civilizations#conflict#foreign-affairs#cultural-determinism#post-cold-war

2000

What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.

Francis Fukuyama

2000

This is our basic conclusion: Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal. Reaction to last summer's disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.

National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Otto Kerner, chair)

2005

The Soviet economy is proof that, contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, a socialist command economy can function and even thrive.

Paul A. Samuelson