A Historical Materialist Response to the “Clash of Civilizations” Thesis

摘要

This article offers a historical materialist response to the “Clash of Civilizations” thesis put forth by Samuel Huntington. The thesis has merely been addressed by critical theorists, let alone Marxists, “en passant”, thereby overlooking its persistent theoretical influence upon contemporary world politics. The essay thus seeks to extend historical materialism's critical endeavour by theoretically challenging Huntington's paradigm. It argues that Huntington's incoherent form of “civilizational” realism underpins the theoretical-empirical shortcomings of his thesis. Yet it consciously overlooks meta-theoretical flaws and follows Huntington's line of reasoning to challenge his more compelling arguments.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600826.2011.553527