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Overview
Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order argues that after the Cold War the main source of global conflict would be cultural, not ideological or economic. He divides the world into major civilizations, defined largely by culture and religion, and predicts friction along their borders. The thesis is widely quoted and widely criticised. It matters because it shaped policy debate and popular assumptions about religion and conflict, and learners need to be able to assess its claims rather than absorb them.
Context
Huntington, a Harvard political scientist, set out the idea in a 1993 Foreign Affairs article, partly as a reply to Fukuyama's end-of-history thesis, and expanded it into the 1996 book. The Soviet bloc had just collapsed, wars were breaking out in the former Yugoslavia, and policymakers were searching for a new map of world politics.
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Curator's notes
- Why it matters
- Future conflict will follow cultural and religious lines
- Use in training and coaching
- Pair with Said and Sen's Identity and Violence for balance
- Idea or text
- The Clash of Civilizations
- Author (date)
- Samuel Huntington (1996)
- Core argument
- Future conflict will follow cultural and religious lines
- Use for you
- Pair with Said and Sen's Identity and Violence for balance
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