The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.

• Author: Kader, Zerougui Adbel

Reviewed by Zerougui Abdel Kader

In a 1993 article in Foreign Affairs, Samuel Huntington, a professor of political science at Harvard University, predicted that future wars will be fought along civilizational rather than economic, political, or ideological lines. In his latest book, The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington expands and defends his thesis. "World politics," he writes: "is being reconfigured along cultural and civilizational lines. In this world the most pervasive, important and dangerous conflicts will not be between social classes, rich and poor, or other economically defined groups, but between peoples belonging to different cultural entities."

Huntington identifies seven such cultural entities: "Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-orthodox, Latin-American, and possibly African civilizations." Huntington claims that as these groups become more conscious of what distinguishes them from others, they become more loyal to their individual civilizations, and as a result, the possibilities of conflicts have increased. "People," he explains, "use politics not just to advance their interests but also to define their identity." As a consequence, Huntington says, the Western world should be ready to contain any possible threats from the non-Western world. Although Huntington believes that Confucian culture represents a major challenge to the West, he joins Francis Fukuyama and Bernard Lewis in demonizing Islam as the main threat to Western civilization. According to Huntington, the differences between Western and Islamic civilizations are so great that the possibility of reconciliation between them is very unlikely. He maintains that Islamic countries have "bloody borders." He advocates fueling conflicts within and among Muslim countries, and between the Muslim and non-Muslim countries. He also advocates encouraging divisions, and using international organizations to weaken the Muslim and especially Arab countries - Huntington often conflates the two even though Arabic speaking people represent at best 17% of the world's Muslim population. Huntington's book shares the flaws of Fukuyama's The End of History and Lewis's "The Roots of Muslim Rage."

It is certainly the case that there are differences among the civilizational blocks Huntington identifies, but these blocs are not as homogenous and self-contained as Huntington would have us believe. Neither in Western, nor in Islamic civilizations is there a homogeneous...