Rating: 
Summary: A great work
Review: Huntington has what could be the primer for international relations in the next century. Well researched, articulate and compelling.
Rating: 
Summary: A Man With A Hammer
Review: Is this the book that launched a thousand missiles? The reason I give it 2 stars instead of one, which it properly deserves, is its provocative value, even though it has little to do with its purported merits - rather demerits.What do you do if you know some little bits of history without much deeper understanding and, especially, without the access to the original sources - because you do not know any "forin'" languages (check the bibliography)? You become a political scientist and you develop a grand theory. Mr. Huntington names among his predecessors Max Weber, Arnold Toinby, Fernand Braudel, Oswald Spengler, William McNeil and other illustrous historians, but he does not belong in their company. All he does is dumb down their very different concepts of civilization to produce a tool that he deems universally applicable. That tool is a hammer: to a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail. His explanations of what is going on in the world are ridiculously crude and ad hoc, and they age remarkably badly: everything he writes about Japan, e. g., is impossible to read today, just several years after, without a smirk. His scenario of the future global conflict is taken out of thin air. His ignorance is universal: I don't have room here to line up examples, but Armenians won't appreciate being called "Orthodox", as Huntington does consistently and, apparently, in good faith. When you look for a nail real hard, it just pops up. To push his concept, Huntington simply invents civilizations ad hoc - and believe me, he is no Toinby. There is a Buddhist civilization in the book as opposed to the original article, even though the few properly Buddhist states have been already distributed elsewhere. Apparently, this would take care of the Tamil-Singhalese conflict Huntington read about in the papers. On the other hand, Africa, of which he knows even less than his usual modest quota, is completely ignored and called an "African" civilization, as if this takes care of everything. This leaves unexplained one of the bloodiest conflict of the late 20th century, but who cares? Do we really need African foreign policy? For some reason Huntington believes we should defend our own civilization tooth and nail - this used to be called Realpolitik but now goes under the moniker of the "realist" school in political science. And so we should, if we still believe in our values (as I happen to do) and hold to these values in our struggle, but perhaps we should take pause if we have doubts. Huntington treats humanity as an animal species (my apology to the animals), considering human destiny as a simple matter of clan survival. In a sense, he is a mirror image of Francis Fukuyama, his purported adversary, shallow and superficial. Let us forget that this book was ever written, and especially that we mistakenly took it for something important.
Rating: 
Summary: The Great Zero Sum Game
Review: This is an extraordinary book. Unfortunately, it is not as well written as it might be. Professor Huntington's basic thesis that the fault lines of the the major civilizations are likely to the areas of greatest conflict is simple and compelling and it updates and highlights the best of previous analysts of world relations. Since 9/11, all focus is on the relations of the Muslim world and the other major civilizations. Huntington's point that all of the groupings of nations, save Islam, have core states to represent them in dealings with the others and to police and discipline members that become too bellicose within and at the fault lines is brilliant. With the vast expansion of human population and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the world has become a giant zero sum game. Advances by one civilization are almost all now at the expense of the others. There are problems wherever civilizations come together, and the leaders of the core states are beginning to come to terms with the notion and the need for restraint The geographic position of Islam places it in direct contact with the West, Eastern Christendom, China, and Hindu states, and there are clashes along all of these meeting points. Without a core state for the other worlds to negotiate with and to limit the aggressive moves of its members, Islam finds itself in conflict with much the world. We can only hope that the world can survive long enough for Islam to find and come to terms with its identity and to represent itself even handedly across its great swath of the world. This book brilliantly lays out the author's views. Unfortunately, when he speculates on the future, it reads more like a movie thriller than a serious statement of his analysis.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent analysis of the trends in global politics
Review: If you look closer at the book's cover, you might notice that the background depicts Twin Towers which were destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The fact is not surprising taking into consideration how many books exploiting the tragedy saw the light since then. The only thing is, The Clash Of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington was published in 1997 - four years prior to the attack. Is it just a coincidence or is there some hidden meaning? For me, the cover serves as a sad proof of the book's importance.
In his book, which evolved from an article written in1993 and titled The Clash Of Civilizations?, Huntington provides analysis of the major trends taking place in world politics after the end of the Cold War. His conclusions are simplified, of course, but accurate nevertheless. Besides, book contains many references - about thirty pages at the end of the book are occupied by them.
In the first part of the book Huntington presents foundation for his analysis by claiming that "culture and cultural identities, which at the broadest level are civilization identities, are shaping the patterns of cohesion, disintegration, and conflict in the post-Cold War world". He also justifies the necessity of a simple model - the one he presents in the book - for understanding all the complex and interwoven relationships between the nations in the modern world. After that Huntington defines the notion of civilization, lists seven stages every civilization comes through while it develops and names civilizations that currently exist.
Second part describes the changing balance of power between existing civilizations. Major tendency is relative "fading of the West" and the rise of Sinic and Islam civilizations. Huntington provides comparative numbers for each civilization's territory and population, economic product and military capability. This part is very informative and contains several quite interesting tables.
In the third part author ends historical discourse and moves to current state of affairs. "Spurred by modernization, global politics is being reconfigured along cultural lines. Peoples and countries with similar cultures are coming together. Peoples and countries with different cultures are coming apart." - writes Huntington and majority of people following world politics would probably agree.
Fourth part of the book focuses on the most intense kind of relations between civilizations - conflicts. Issues facing West in regards to relations with its main contemporary rivals - Sinic and Islam civilizations - are listed and explored. Culmination of conflict between civilizations is usually war, so the topic is properly covered in the last two chapters of the part IV.
Last - fifth - part of the book contains a single chapter, but in my opinion is the most interesting. What conclusions author makes after analyzing current state of the Western civilization? Well, if you want to know, you will have to read the book...
Rating:
Summary: Interesting topics not properly organized.
Review: The book tries to explain the complex reality that evolves during the last century analizing the past, present and future of the main civilizations.
Evidently Mr Huntington has researched a lot and read several writers before publishing his own work. This can easily be seen by the quotes (sometimes more than 50) at the end of each chapter.
Some may agree (or not) with the author's thought but the way the "story" is told is definitely not well appointed.
The description lacks of cohesion and makes the reading a bit boring.
The book (just my opinion) has a sellable, hooky name taking benefits from the post WTC facts. Those facts make something like this (written in 1997) transform the author into a modern pseudo prophet.
Rating:
Summary: Insight into the world of disorder.
Review: This book deals with cause and effect. The principle of "fault wars" is not new but applied as this author has makes it unique. The principle he states is that differences in people are not related to geography or national lines. That which binds people together has never been national but religious. This element bind people together with a willingness to die for their cause. It results in tearing apart nations with little regard to any national boundary. It, for me, to makes sense of the Israel-Palentine conflict and puts a slant on it that makes more sense than the retoric delivered by so many adminstrations. The point he makes is clear-you can make peace with in a conflict of this type BUT ONLY if both sides are worn out. The indication is that it will start again no matter what. That brings us to the conclusion-- the total destruction of one side or the other is the ONLY solution that will actually work. During the past 3,247 year of human history according to Durant the historian only 250 of these have been free of war!! Maybe the Bible is right-"There will be Wars and rumors of Wars till I come again!"
Rating:
Summary: shows how much culture influences the global scene
Review: Clash of civilizations provides a good background to better understand how culture influences our world. Through times, different cultures have risen and fallen. Others have alway tried to imitate the dominant culture. Hungting shows this through western civilization. He shows how western culture has transformed the world into what it is today and how non-western cultures have been to copy the west. However, Hungtington also points how the west is also losing ground in areas like population, military and technological acheivement. Hungtington also shows how non-western cultures are now trying to recapture their own past instead of going into western culture 100%. Huntington shows other issues relating to culture and how they affect global politics like pan-nationalism, such as how muslims see it as their duty to help other muslims living in different countries, speak different languages and have different ethnicities and how slavic countries have tried to protect slavic people in other countries. In the last chapter of the book hungtington shows how the world bargaining is now changing because of the rising of non-western countries like china and how the west has to negotiate and deal with them now. Overall, the book is well researched and provides a good observation of the importance in culture in issues like developemet, histroy, politics and ecnomics.
Rating:
Summary: living in an unavoidably polycentric world
Review: The first thing to say about "The Clash" is that it is one of the most important books on international relations of the 1990s. Read it. Second, it was written in an attempt to understand the world following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, not the world following a terrorist incident of 2001 -- it's not an "instant book." Huntington is aiming at the big picture here, much bigger than a snapshot that exaggerates the importance of a few individuals, incidents or even organizations. And, third key point, "The Clash" is understood to mean precisely the opposite of what it actually says by many who haven't read it! It's important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees with this one. Some readers seem to be looking for commentary on some particular corner of the globe, and if they disagree with Huntington's take on it, then they reject the book in toto. But the real issue is Huntington's civilizational analysis, not the details of application. Of course there may be practical relevance to policymaking if the theory provides useful insight, but more than one policy may be consistent with the analysis. What Huntington has done is repopularize the old civilizational approach to history of Toynbee and Spengler. Not at all original, then, nonetheless this approach reintroduces something vital to the understanding of world politics -- Europe and the West is but one of several major world civilizations with long histories, religions and cultures, and it is arrogant to think that the rest of the world can be remade in our image. Here's how Huntington summarizes the point of "The Clash": "In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false, it is immoral, and it is dangerous." (310) "Western universalism is dangerous to the world because it could lead to a major intercivilizational war between core states and it is dangerous to the West because it could lead to the defeat of the West." (311) So in other words, the U.S. should pursue policies that *avoid* clashes with other civilizations, including Islam, precisely the opposite of the way the book has been interpreted as calling for war with Islam, or war with China. Further, Huntington argues against global crusading in general, for democracy, or nation-building, or any other idealist policies premised on remaking the world in the image of the West. However, Huntington is not a unilateralist. He sees the importance and necessity of international institutions, and sees that they can play an increasingly important role in the future as the temporary U.S. preponderance of military power inevitably declines.
Rating:
Summary: A New Construct For The Causes of International Conflict
Review: Huntington's thesis in the "Clash of Civilizations" is that the majority of future conflicts will occur between civilizations - Western, Islamic, Latin American, African, Sinic, Hindu, Orthodox, Buddhist, and Japanese as he defines them. All students and professors of international relations would benefit from reading Huntington. Regardless of whether he is correct or not, his theory has generated more debate than any recent proposals over the character of the post Cold War international setting that will emerge in the coming decades. Policy makers in economics, the military or politics would also benefit from understanding Huntington's theory. As with many theorists, Huntington attempts to highlight principles that can be applied to various settings. He develops a model based on civilizations to help explain the sources of future conflicts in international affairs. Like all models, the theorist must simplify reality to expose universal truths, which can be applied in various milieus. Of course, Huntington's model will not explain every instance of political, economic and military conflict. Over time, however, it may serve to help explain a preponderance of future strife between nations. The relevance of "The Clash of Civilizations," will more than likely wax and wane with the ebbing and flowing of international events. For example, the current conflict in Afghanistan tends to support Huntington's thesis. Hence the large amount of attention paid to his book in Washington D.C. recently. However, interest will fall in and out of favor with political elites as new conflicts emerge that either fit the model, or do not apply to the theory. If short on time, read chapter one. The gist: A new era in world politics has emerged, defined by clashes between major civilizations. This chapter is essentially an executive summary of the entire book. As a former advisor to President Clinton, Huntington realizes that most politicians and many policy makers do not have time to read entire books. He conveniently summarizes the book in chapter one. The remainder of the text is organized to substantiate his thesis with supporting facts.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: In this highly provocative book, Professor Huntington argues that the world has been moving into a new epoch. In the distant past, civilizations lived apart from each other, with inter-civilizational conflicts being few but of great intensity. Beginning in the 1500s, the West exploded beyond its boundaries, and came to dominate other civilizations. After a period of "Warring States," when Western nations fought each other with other peoples of the globe being used as pawns, the world has been realigning back into civilizational groups. Although not everyone in the West perceives the new reality, peoples around the globe now begin to see wars between nations of different civilizations as wars involving themselves. Thus, when Muslim fights Christian, the other peoples of the civilizations involved feel themselves drawn in. This book is quite fascinating, and goes a long way towards explaining much of what can be seen in the recent clash of the West versus Serbia, and America versus Afghanistan. The author explains this new reality, discussing how it came about, what it means now, and what it will mean for the future. I found this book's grasp of the present course of the world to be breathtaking. Even if you do not believe its view of the world, I would highly recommend that you read a book that has been highly influential on many movers and shakers.
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