Les civilisations et l'avenir du monde

Civilizations and the Future of the World
Readers of Futuribles are doubtless familiar with Samuel P. Huntington’s thesis (The Clash of Civilizations) that the end of the Cold War and its ideological conflicts is not a signal of the end of history (Francis Fukuyama) but of mounting tensions, even confrontations, between civilizations.
Pierre Béhar shows, however, that Huntington’s definition of civilization and his identification of six major regions, mainly on the basis of territory and religion, are simplistic caricatures. In the first place, the Occident is not an homogeneous entity; there have been fertile exchanges throughout history between Europe and the Islamic countries of the Middle East.
According to Béhar, Huntington’s thesis is a by-product of American hegemonic will, frustrated by the rise of multi-culturalism on its own territory.