The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

By: Samuel P. Huntington

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

For anyone interested in foreign affairs, this book will catalyze debate, and not only for Mr. Huntington's concluding scenario for World War III. He sees how this could happen if the U.S. mishandles an increasingly xenophobic and truculent China. Chinese assertiveness, Huntington argues, rises out of its felt grievances against a relatively weakening West. After China, the gravest challenge to the West is resurgent Islamic identity. So what to do? The West should ensure the survival of its values within a stronger European-North American alliance that can offset the emerging Sino-Islamic grouping.

Samuel P. Huntington is a political scientist at Harvard and was a foreign policy aide to President Clinton.

©1996 Samuel P. Huntington (P)2002 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Dazzling in its scope and grasp of the intricacies of contemporary global politics." (Wall Street Journal)

A prince for our time.

The scope of this book is impressive, and is a great resourse for anyone wanting a global picture of international relations , and a predictor of how relations will unfold in the near and long term. I feel this book is devoid of the Ideologies of our time and sets out to portray a pragmatic and realistic view of our circumstances and challenges as a society. It filled a few holes in my study of history.

One of the best and accurate view on the world

Also the view on our politics, policies, religion. An eager behavior about humans willingly separate, conflict or even war, just to think different than the other side, which might be next to us.

Fukuyama wrong, Huntington right

The only path forward for the west is to fully embrace and reinvigorate Christendom. That’s it.

It is a great book for any political science major

What made the experience of listening to The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the most enjoyable?

A must read for anyone into political science. Very well researched and timeless conclusions. Huntington has a great understanding of the cultural implications of any action taken in the world forum.

a great book,and a very interesting anlysis.

Das Hörbuch ist sehr gut gesprochen. Das Thema allerdings erfordert hohe Konzentration beim zuhören. Manchmal wäre eine gedruckte version besser. aber Inhaltlich hochspannend

Failed the test of time

The author’s main predictions have failed the test of time. He clearly picked up on the resurgence of ethnic conflicts in the 90s as the eastern block has been reshuffled. None on the scale of ethnic cleansing after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW1, one should note. The US wars in the Middle East - are they a clash of civilizations or the fight for oil with resource-rich brutal dictatorships? The big one is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Again a resource grab under a nuclear umbrella. The author naively thought there is a unifying Orthodox civilization that would make it improbable - there is no such thing, Orthodox Church is a farce co-opted by the Russian KGB long time ago. Finally china’s potential takeover of Taiwan is another power grab, which has nothing to do with ‘culture’. Culture is a story and can easily be retold in a short time span. Look at the S. Vs N Korea experiment.
One can just assume the Darwinian competition for varios resources- economic or territorial- at macro and micro level with random outcomes. Grand unifying theories are bound to be false.
Still an interesting read.

Most of it was above my head, still good.

I'm a 4 year college grad with no specific background in this type of stuff. This book was pretty far over my head on a lot of topics. Still a good read and puts into perspective the foreign policy, wars, and politics that national leaders have to think about. Unless you are a history buff, some of the references will be lost on you. Still recommend, but there may be other books out there that are a little closer to the ground on the same topic.

Review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remak

The book provides a good perspective on how the world is organized and how it operates, both at the present time and from a historical perspective. The author isolates certain scenarios and identifies many of the factors that contribute to the conditions discussed. The book was very enjoyable, but took some investment in time-well worth it though.

broad yet engaging

This book is really broad, but keeps your attention no less. Interesting analysis on global relationships, makes me want to read different perspectives of the same topics.

Excellent book!

Interesting ideas, still actual approach. The author reviews the major civilizations and religions in the history and gives new inputs to understand the past, present and a possible future of the human history. Read it, listen it you will enjoy it.