Opinion of "Clash of Civilizations"

[12th Doctor]

For those of you familiar with the theory of Sameul Huntington, what is your opinion of it?  I will offer my own, but for now I'm off to bed.

[12th Doctor]

Acctually, if you read the end of the book, there is no assumption of an enevitable clash, rather, he states that understanding these cultural differences can avoid future clashes.

He does note that the Islamic/Western dimension is quite different from those existing between other civilizations, but you must remember that his book was written in 1996, before it could be anticipated that there would be a full scale invasion of Iraq and Afganistan and that those Western forces would stick around long enough to form new Democratic governments.

Centainly, parts of his theory are evident in the modern world.  Look at the situation in tha Balkans.  Both sides were supported by other countries of their cultural groups inspite of lack of any national interest for countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia and even the PLO.  This, might have something to do with the Islamic concept of the ummah then again, that doesn't explain Russian involvement in the crisis.

Similarly, we have the creation of a fault-line in the Ukraine, which Huntington predicted.  Orthodoxy is the primary civilization of Eastern Ukraine and Westernism is the primary civilization of East Ukraine.  Both sides are battling hard to pull the country into its shpere of influence and the are clear cut civilizational differences within the country.

[12th Doctor]

Beet's comments are, unfortunatly, typical of average thinking about neo-conservativism.  I am currently reading a book called "The Neocon Reader" which acctually is the best explanation of neocon beliefs.  As John Ford said, Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell are not neocons.  If they were, then the days leading up to the war would have been far different and the plan of attack and occupation would have beared little resemblence to the current policy.

Neoconservatism gets a bad rap, because it is used as a lable for everything that both Liberals and Conservatives don't like.