The document summarizes key points from Samuel Huntington's book "Clash of Civilizations". Huntington argues that future conflicts will arise from clashes between major civilizations due to differences in culture, beliefs, and values. He asserts that the West is declining in influence while other civilizations are becoming more prominent. The document discusses how realism and constructivism perspectives can help analyze Huntington's theories and predicts that differences between groups will inevitably lead to ongoing conflicts between civilizations.

1. Daniel Lozano
5/13/2009
Political Science 204
Extra Credit Paper: Clash of the Civilizations
I Throughout the book, Huntington goes into detail about what he agrees to be the demise
of the world due to groups constantly fighting each other. In the first part of the book he starts
talking about how everyone is eventually becoming one of the eight major civilizations in the
world. He eventually tries to show in this part of the book that the worlds are becoming more
modernized but they are trying to leave the West. In the second part he talks about how the
conflict between these two groups is getting more different. He states that either the West is still
strong in all aspects of the world or that the West is declining and the other groups are rising. He
states that he agrees with the West declining.
He goes on into detail about this and why he thinks that this is true. Then after this he
goes on to explain that religion has a big role in politics. Well throughout the rest of the book he
goes more into details about all this. His whole theory is that the world will be constantly fighting
due to differences in culture. Some foreign policy issues that he deals with are religion, beliefs,
and morals. He talks about these in an international level and explains how they cause this
“clash” between people. His roadmap for the future is very clear and simple. He states that these
differences that people have will cause greater conflicts and that there will probably never be any
world peace or order of some sort. He feels that this will constantly keep going until there are no
differences between peoples and their civilizations.

2. II Throughout this book we have seen Huntington go on into details about what has
happened over time and why it is happening. If you look at from the liberalist perspective you
would most likely say that all of what Huntington believes is incorrect. They would believe that
there shouldn’t be conflicts between groups and that they should have form organizations or
something to keep the civilizations from arguing with each other. With constructivism and realism
you can say that in a way they can both be used. First off with constructivism, there whole
perspective is that ideas matter. We see this when groups are having arguments. One could argue
that constructivism tries to show that relations between groups are caused by society and the
interaction between them.
When looking at this from a realist perspective you can see this argument differently.
From a realist perspective you would say that certain groups will form, these groups would want
nothing more than money and power. This has to do with what that group believes to be right
according to their thinking. From looking at Huntington’s perspective you can say that the
majority of people will most likely agree with what he stated. If Huntington would be one of the
three perspectives it would most likely be a realist. Though it talks about cultural identity and
things of that nature, the majority of the groups want to be the best and this is what causes
bloodshed between groups. The majority probably have been taught to try to be the best and be
better then everyone. The problem with that is that if others think that too, this will cause
problems between everyone.
III I totally agree with what Huntington said in his book. Well if you think about what
Huntington said you will see that this “clash” between different groups is never going to stop.

3. There are always going to be some sort of difference between people. The problem with our
differences is that, as Huntington stated, were started aligning ourselves with people of the same
kind and distancing ourselves from the rest. This is always going to happen because we always
feel comfortable with someone that is like us. Since the beginning of time there has always been
conflict over differences. Huntington is basically pointing out that this will be the demise of
countries because this will cause battles between groups.
In the last chapter Huntington says that it is the “greatest threat to world peace, and
international order”. He was referring to clashing between civilizations. I completely agree with
Huntington says in his book because that is human nature. As we look back, we have seen that
there has always been a conflict between groups. The fact that there are conflicts shows that
some people still want to resolve them yet this is going to be impossible due to everyone trying to
be in charge. You can say that in a way everyone is trying to use survival of the fittest with the
strongest group surviving. The problem with this is that since man’s ability to rebel has probably
increased they will cause and create other groups which will start the cycle all over again.