Comment by hetman
11 years ago
Samuel Huntington's thesis about the Clash of Civilisations has been thoroughly criticised since he originally proposed it, and yet in some ways the world is increasingly taking the shape he imagined. It would have been wise to treat it as a warning and take precautionary measurers instead; perhaps it is not too late.
It was criticized on academic and theoretical grounds. In his field (International Relations) there are hundreds if not thousands of people all producing a lot of dialogue and research relating to overarching models for how states interact. They've been at this for a very long time.
If you want a book deal, though, you ditch all of this work and just paint broad, easily-digestible strokes over everything. In this case, he's throwing social constructivist research into norms and sub/super-state influencers out the window and claiming the world runs on civilizations. You can probably think through how this might not be the case by considering the role of economics, individuals, and strategic alliances in international politics.
Some people are hard at work making it reality. Conflict is profitable in so many ways.