The Clash of Civilizations: And the Remaking of World Order

Huntington provides a strong argument around his central statement regarding the role of 'civilisations' in forming global society, and in particular in regards to their role in conflict.

He backs up his thoughts with clear references to events and research. More importantly his style of communication is not overwhelmed with long winded terminology and language more suited to academic circles, but is instead clear and succinct, making the book easy reading with for any reader without losing any of the intellectual power with which the book is delivered.

Given the increasing presence of radical islam in the world media, the book is very timely reading for those interested or concerned about the direction of global society.

So, in summary - a very thought provoking and readable book for those interested in where the world is heading.

On a final note - I would also recommend reading 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree', 'Humanity, a moral history of the 20th century' and several writings by Francis Fukuyama, for some additional perspectives on topics along the same line.


If Huntington is right the world map is due for a big change   December 8, 2003
DAVID-LEONARD WILLIS (Thessaloniki Greece)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Huntington's 1993 article in 'Foreign Affairs' generated so much interest, it was expanded into this book. His answer to the question 'Will conflicts between civilizations dominate world politics?' is affirmative; clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace; an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war. Since the end of the Cold War people define themselves by blood, belief, faith and family - ancestry, language, religion, history, values, institutions, tribes, ethnic groups and customs - rather than by nation, ideologies and economics. Nation states remain the principal actors but the most important groupings are the major civilizations - Western, Latin America, African, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist and Japanese. Civilizations have no clear-cut boundaries, no precise beginnings and endings; they are mortal but long-lived; they evolve and adapt. The hotspots are on the fault lines between civilizations - Chechnya, the Transcaucasus, Central Asia, Kashmir, the Middle East, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. Bosnia was a war of civilizations with Russia providing diplomatic support to the Serbs while Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran and Libya provided funds and arms to the Bosnians. The philosophical assumptions, underlying values, social relations, customs and overall outlooks on life differ significantly among civilizations, reinforced by the revitalization of religion. The West is the most powerful civilization but its relative power is declining while Confucian and Islamic societies are rising to balance the west. Dangerous clashes are likely to arise from Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance and Sinic assertiveness. Bill Clinton argued that the West does not have a problem with Islam but only with violent extremists, but 1400 years of history demonstrate otherwise. The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. Islam is a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and obsessed with the inferiority of their power. Huntington presents the evidence, the argument and provides a strategy for the West to preserve its culture while learning to coexist in a multipolar, multi-civilizational world.

The expansion of the Western civilization has ended and the revolt against the west has begun. Western power has declined and the map of 1990 has little resemblance to the map of 1920. Toynbee warned that the parochialism and impertinence of the West is manifested in egocentric illusions; Braudel urged a broader perspective to understand the great cultural conflicts and the multiplicity of its civilizations. However, "the illusions and prejudices of which these scholars warned, live on and in the late 20th century have blossomed forth in the widespread and parochial conceit that the European civilization of the West is now the universal civilization of the world." As the West confronts problems of slow economic growth, stagnating populations, unemployment, huge government deficits, a declining work ethic, low savings rates, social disintegration, drugs and crime, economic power is shifting to Asia. Military power and political influence will follow. There has been a religious resurgence, often fundamentalist, to meet the psychological, emotional and social needs of people caught in the traumas of modernization. Asia and Islam have been the dynamic civilizations of the last quarter century. China is projected to have the world's largest economy early in the 21st century while Asia is likely to have seven of the ten largest economies by 2020. Islam is not just a religion but a way of life. Islamic assertiveness under the banner 'Islam is the solution' accepts modernization but rejects Western culture. Social mobilization and population growth and particularly the expansion of the fifteen to twenty-four-year-old age cohort, provides recruits for fundamentalism, terrorism, insurgency, and migration. At 18% of world population in 1980, the Muslim population is likely to be 30% in 2025. The Protestant Reformation was one of the outstanding youth movements in history; the youth of Islam have already made their mark in the Islamic resurgence. Larger populations need more resources, push outward, occupy territory and exert pressure on neighbors.

Part V of the book - The Future of Civilizations - is the really interesting part. Huntington points out that civilizations can reform and renew themselves. The central issue for the West is whether it can meet the external challenge while stopping and reversing the process of internal decay. He paints a scenario for a major war of civilizations and points out that the great beneficiaries will be those who abstain and closes by saying: "If this scenario seems a wildly implausible fantasy to the reader, that is all to the good. Let us hope that no other scenarios of global civilizational war have greater plausibility."

If Huntington is right that clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace in the future; if he, Toynbee and Braudel are right about our arrogance and conceit in believing that Western civilization is the end of history; and if our leaders see no need to plan for the inevitable rise of other civilizations, I fear that the world map is due for another big change.


Must reading for the serious student of international affairs   November 8, 2006
apressello (Warsaw, Poland)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful

While there is much (most) of this book I disagree with, it is nonetheless the essential, seminal work on the Clash of Civilizations theory, and thus is must reading for any serious student of international affairs.

In describing his thesis, Huntington elevates "mere" culture to the level of civilization, implying that there are unbridgable fundamental differences between different civilizations which will inevitably lead to a world where these civilizations compete or clash. I don't mean to lazily discredit the idea by association, but this is the philosophy promoted by the likes of Osama bin Laden, for example.

I am afraid reviewers who link this author to the militaristic neo-con movement in the US do not understand either Huntington's thesis or neo-cons themselves. A member of the Western civilization who was an adherent of the Clash of Civilizations worldview would NEVER attack a state of the Islamic civilization, let alone try to turn it into a democracy. Huntington's thesis would predict other nations in the Islamic civilization would rally to the defense of their co-civilizationalist, seeing the attack in terms of an attempt by one civilization to dominate another no matter how justified the attack was (or wasn't, in this case).

Before the war at least, neo-cons argued that all peoples yearn for democracy, that democracy can be delivered at the point of a sword and that it is the mission (burden?) of the West and particularly the lone superpower to liberate these peoples, who will welcome us as their saviors as we create new allies in our own image even while we destroy our enemies. Anyone who suggested that Muslims or Arabs might not be happy to be invaded and brought to democracy was cleverly dismissed as a racist or cultural imperialist. What the neo-cons see as universal civilization Huntington would say is merely Western civilization, and thus any attempt to impose this on another civilization would be doomed to failure.

While Huntington's thesis (first postulated in 1993) would seem to successfully predict the failure of neo-con policy, I think he goes too far in defining characteristics which are "merely" cultural as civilizational. Certainly, there are such things as Islamic and Sinic and Orthodox cultures which one may be wise (and respectful) to consider when dealing with people from those cultures. However, to suggest that these differences are unbridgable is in my view a very limited, deterministic world-view and really an end-game in itself. Individuals can bridge these divisions - what makes "civilizations" composed of individuals any different?

In addition, there are things like universal human rights which exist and have been ratified by nations all over the world. I can not agree with Huntington that these are just expressions of Western thought imposed on the world by the dominant civilization.

Although I find much to oppose in this book, it is very well presented and will certainly be argued about for years to come. You may as well read about the theory straight from the source!


Fascinating!   March 12, 2004
Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, IL USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

In this highly provocative book, Professor Huntington argues that the world has been moving into a new epoch. In the distant past, civilizations lived apart from each other, with inter-civilizational conflicts being few but of great intensity. Beginning in the 1500s, the West exploded beyond its boundaries, and came to dominate other civilizations. After a period of "Warring States," when Western nations fought each other with other peoples of the globe being used as pawns, the world has been realigning back into civilizational groups.

Although not everyone in the West perceives the new reality, peoples around the globe now begin to see wars between nations of different civilizations as wars involving themselves. Thus, when Muslim fights Christian, the other peoples of the civilizations involved feel themselves drawn in.

This book is quite fascinating, and goes a long way towards explaining much of what can be seen in the recent clash of the West versus Serbia, and America versus Afghanistan. The author explains this new reality, discussing how it came about, what it means now, and what it will mean for the future.

I found this book's grasp of the present course of the world to be breathtaking. Even if you do not believe its view of the world, I would highly recommend that you read a book that has been highly influential on many movers and shakers.