What do ethicists have to say about the clash of civilizations?
Read a report by Bob Smietana from a recent meeting of the Society of Christian Ethics. In Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington’s vision of the future, world conflict will be shaped not by economics or ideologies, as was the case during the Cold War, but by violent confrontation between civilizations with differing religions and cultures. In his 1993 FOREIGN AFFAIRS essay, “The Clash of Civilizations?,” and in a 1996 book, Huntington has argued that “fault-line wars” between civilizations could tear nations apart and eventually lead to a global war of “the West versus the rest.” “In class and ideological conflicts, the key question was ‘Which side are you on?’ and people could and did choose sides and change sides,” Huntington has written. “In conflicts between civilizations, the question is ‘What are you?’ That is a given that cannot be changed. And as we know, from Bosnia to the Caucasus to the Sudan, the wrong answer to that question can mean a bullet in the head. Even more
