The Clash of Civilizations?: The Debate (Paperback)

by Samuel P. Huntington (Editor), Foreign Affairs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This collection is the consummate collection of readings on contemporary international relations. According to Samuel Huntington's seminal 1993 essay, The Clash of Civilizations, world politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of international conflict will be cultural. Civilizations—the highest cultural groupings of people—are differentiated from each other by religion, history, language and tradition. In the resulting era of cultural conflict that is emerging, the United States must forge alliances with similar cultures and spread its values wherever possible. In Huntington's final analysis, the West must be accommodating if possible and confrontational if necessary; moreover, all civilizations will have to learn to tolerate each other. This collection includes a series of responses to Huntington's original essay by eminent writers in the field.

Contents includes articles originally published in Foreign Affairs including:

• The Clash of Civilizations? Samuel Huntington, Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993
• The Summoning Fouad Ajami, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• The Dangers of Decadence Kishore Mahbubani, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• The Case for Optimism Robert L. Bartley, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• Civilization Grafting Liu Binyan, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• The Modernizing Imperative Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• Do Civilizations Hold? Albert L. Weeks, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• The West is the Best Gerard Piel, Foreign Affairs, September/October 1993
• If Not Civilizations, What? Samuel Huntington, Foreign Affairs, November/December 1993

Product Details

• Paperback: 68 pages
• Publisher: Foreign Affairs; 1 edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876091648
• ISBN-13: 978-0876091647
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #74,810 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not worth buying....read at some bookstore, August 8, 2005

By	mdr "mdr" (4points) - See all my reviews

I enjoyed the original book but this debate replies don't go in depth to become intriguing. It is a collection of responses from 7 other economist/historian/etc., and it is a very basic responses. I would just read it at some bookstore, and save the money. [.]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good compilation of essays regarding the West vs. the Rest, July 9, 2008

By	J. Keegan Beck (Ba'qubah, Iraq) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This short book does an excellent job of providing the reader with both sides of the "West vs. the Rest" debate. In addition to Huntington's essay, originally published in the fall of 1993, there are several counter-essays that argue against Huntington's original "Clash of Civilizations?" The book is finished off with another essay by Huntington, a counter to the counter-essays, entitled "If Not Civilizations, What?" Even though the essays were all originally published in the early 1990's, alot of their arguments still ring true in the world we live in today.

15 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written and discussed long before any Danish Mohammed-Cartoon, February 6, 2006

By	FrizzText "frizz" (Wuppertal) - See all my reviews

The analysis, published 1993 by Huntington, written long before any Danish Mohammed-Cartoon, has refocused attention after the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks - and there seems to be no end: Madrid (3/11/04), bombings in Istanbul (11/20/03) and in London (7/7/05) or the ritual assassination of Dutch filmmaker and writer Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam (11/2/04). Protests against Danish Mohammed-Cartoons (2006), Hamas in Gaza, war against IRAQ, trouble with IRAN.

And therefore there is no end of TV-discussions how to react. Huntington, former foreign policy aide to the US State Department speaks of so-called "fault-line-wars", which exist between the cultures (religions) and will give endlessly smouldering. As examples the hunter Huntington specifies among other things the Gulf War and Afghanistan.

Hotspots seemed to be on the fault lines between the religions in Chechnya, the Middle East, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Bosnia. In Yugoslavia the Serbs where supported by Russian diplomatist while Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Libya provided arms to the Bosnians. Yugoslavia is an example of what happens to a country where religious factors become the means for identifying oneself.

And it could develop worse: Koran-Sura 9, verse 5: "Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. And seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them, in every stratagem [of war]." Islam teaches that Muslims must not befriend Jews and Christians. Surat Al-Maidah 5:51 says, "O ye, who believe, take not the Jews or the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other."

In the chapter about how to stop those "break-line-wars" Huntington writes: "The force along cultural break lines may stop for a while completely, but it rarely ends really." "These problems become still more complicated, if the cultures involved do not have a core state." Hierarchy-creditor finishing sentence of this important chapter: "A break line war cooks from down highly, a break line peace seeps from above down". We hope, Huntington will know, which at the end is "above". Another unsentimental, very tough-minded Huntington analysis: "The conflict can disappear fast and brutally, as a group extinguishes the other one."

The fact that cultural difference could brought to coexistence, into an equilibrium, supported by a progressive deliberated secularization of all denominations (accompanied by a sober transformation of all too denomination-linked educating systems) - such roots of thought we unfortunately miss in this provoking sermon, mainly dominated by a military perspective...