11. What are We Fighting For? Western Civilization, American Identity, and U.S. Foreign Policy
- Author:
- James Kurth
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- Fifteen years ago, Samuel P. Huntington published, first as an article (“The Real Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993) and then as a book (The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon and Schuster, 1996), his famous argument about the clash of civilizations. The clash that he was referring to was the clash between the West—Western civilization—and the rest. Of the rest, he considered the greatest challenges to the West would come from the Islamic civilization and the Sinic, or Confucian, civilization. These challenges would be very different because these civilizations were very different. But together they could become a dynamic duo that might raise very serious challenges to the West.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Islam, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus