Clash of Civilizations: 'Required Reading'.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Brief Article

"Let me recommend to all or my colleagues the book by Samuel P. Huntington, 'The Clash of Civilizations,'" said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. In a speech on the Senate floor, he said Huntington's book "should be required reading for all of my colleagues and those within the national media, and all interested in preserving democracy, freedom and western values.

In the summer of 1993, the journal Foreign Affairs published Huntington's chilling article entitled, "The Clash of Civilizations?" The article generated so much buzz in the national security community that Huntington, a professor at Harvard, extended his article into a book.

In the book, Huntington posed the question of whether cultural "fault lines" could lead to a world war in the early 21st century. He explained that differences between civilizations that developed in the period after the Cold War, and presented the idea that American and European concepts of peace, liberty and freedom are now under attack. He made explicit references to Muslim nations and said that the...