CLASH, END, OR BOTH ? :

The Future of 'History' (Stanley Kurtz, June & July 2002, Policy Review)

This is Samuel P. Huntington's moment. The world of cultural and religious strife anticipated by Huntington in his much-discussed (and widely excoriated) book, The Clash of Civilizations, has unquestionably arrived. Yet whether we might also someday see an alternative world - the global triumph of democracy envisioned in Francis Fukuyama's brilliant work, The End of History and the Last Man - is also a question that seems very much before us as we contemplate what it would mean to 'win' the war in which we are engaged. The question of our time may now be whether Huntington's culture clash or Fukuyama's pax democratia is the world's most plausible future. [...]

[T]he resolution between Fukuyama and Huntington is still in doubt. Huntington was right about a conflict in the offing between the Middle East and the West. But we still don't know whether that clash is just the beginning of a long-term civilizational stand-off or a stimulus to democracy's and capitalism's final and successful push to establish themseleves around the world.

Mike Daley recommended this terrific essay that contrasts and compares two books I like very much and have reviewed previously : The Clash of Civilizations and The End of History and the Last Man. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 6, 2002 8:17 PM