Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The 'Clash of Civilizations' is an controversial article by Samuel P. Huntington in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1993 in which he argued that the primary political actors in the 21st century will be civilizations and that the primary conflicts will be conflict between civilizations rather than between nation states. The article was written in response to the idea by Francis Fukuyama that the world was approaching the end of history in which western liberal democracy would prove triumphant. Huntington later expanded this thesis in his 1996 book The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order. These civilizations are mostly divided along religious lines. The main ones he sees are: Western Christendom, centred on Europe and North America. Whether Latin America and the former member states of the Soviet Union are included, or are instead their own separate civilizations, will be an important future consideration for those regions, according to Huntington. The Muslim world of the Middle East and North Africa India The Sinic civilization centred around China and surrounding countries. The Orthodox world of Eastern Europe and Russia. Latin America Sub-Saharan Africa The Buddhist areas of northern India and Northwestern China Japan Huntington argues that throughout the post-Cold War era world conflicts have occured along borders between civilizations with very little fighting within civilizations. Wars such as those following the break up of Yugoslavia, in Chechnya, and between India and Pakistan are all evidence of intercivilizational conflict, according to Huntington. He also views conflict between areas as all but inevitable because of substantially different value systems. He argues that the growth of notions such as democracy and free-trade since the end of the Cold War has really only affected Western Christendom and that the rest of the world has played little role in globalization to this point. Criticisms Huntington's piece in Foreign Affairs created more responses than almost anyother essay ever published in that journal. There have been many criticisms of his thesis. Many have argued that his civilizations are very fractured with little unity. Vietnam still keeps a massive army, mostly to guard against China. The Muslim world is severely fractured along ethnic lines with Kurds, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Pakistanis, and Indonesians all have very different world views. It has been pointed out that values are more easily transmited and altered than Huntington proposes. Nations such as India and Japan have become successful democracies, and the west itself was rife with despotism and fundamentalism for most of its history. Others who accept his view of divisions along civilizational lines have attacked the idea that conflict is inevitable arguing that all but a few fundamentalists in each civilization would prefer to coexist amicably. On certain issues Huntington has appeared prescient, most especillay with the September 11 attacks and the attacks by western states upon Afghanistan and Iraq. On other issues Huntington has not been as correct. The relationship between Japan and the US is still close, with Japan providing monetary and political support for US foreign policies. Also a Sino-Islamic alliance that Huntington saw as inevitable has so far not come to pass. External links The Clash of Civilizations, text of the original essay The True Clash of Civilizations, by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, Foreign Policy 2003. This article discusses recent surveys of opinions in predominantly Islamic nations and claims that the real rift between civilizations does not concern the question of democracy (which is generally approved) but rather the attitudes towards sexuality and gender equality. Those societies that do not tolerate self-expression, it argues, are unlikely to become stable democracies. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.