Abstract
In this research note I examine Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' thesis in the light of his arguments to his detractors to apply his thesis to post-Cold War armed conflicts within states. Drawing on more recent data on intrastate armed conflict to 1999, I demonstrate that Huntington's thesis is not substantiated. What we observe is that many of the interethnic and inter-religious conflicts that occur in the post-Cold War era are clashes within rather than between civilizations, just as Huntington's critics have noted previously. In fact, in the post-Cold War era, where there have been changes in the incidence of 'clashes of civilizations' we find that their number has actually declined, if only marginally.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 458-469 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | International Politics |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2005 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Political Science and International Relations