The Clash of Civilizations

Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" model posits that the post-Cold War world will be dominated by several historical civilizations, the most important of which being the Western, the Muslim, and the Confucian. Understanding what is going on in the world in terms of this clash seems to be helpful.

See this Wall Street Journal article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch parliament. Ms. Ali utilizes Huntington's model to understand a variety of international conflicts now underway. Here is my favorite passage from her article:

The greatest advantage of Huntington's civilizational model of international relations is that it reflects the world as it is—not as we wish it to be. It allows us to distinguish friends from enemies. And it helps us to identify the internal conflicts within civilizations, particularly the historic rivalries between Arabs, Turks and Persians for leadership of the Islamic world.

It is interesting that, in spite of her Asian name, Ms. Ali identifies herself with Western civilization in this clash. I wish I was sure President Obama makes the same identification.