On Monday and Tuesday, we will discuss Samuel Huntington's provocative 1993 article "Clash of Civilizations?"
Think about these issues when you read his main essay: What is his hypothesis? How does he support his argument? What evidence does he use? Do you agree with him, or are there flaws?
On Monday morning: Read in depth the booklet "Clash of Civilizations."
It is 67 pages, but I don't expect you to read all of it. You can skip the following essays:
- The essay by Liu Binyan
- The essay by Albert Weeks
- The essay by Gerrard Piel
Apart from the other articles in the book, make absolutely sure that you read the first article on pp 1 - 25 as well as Fouad Ajami's response entitled "The Summoning," which appears immediately after Huntington's main essay.
Think about these issues when you read his main essay: What is his hypothesis? How does he support his argument? What evidence does he use? Do you agree with him, or are there flaws?
On Monday morning: Read in depth the booklet "Clash of Civilizations."
It is 67 pages, but I don't expect you to read all of it. You can skip the following essays:
- The essay by Liu Binyan
- The essay by Albert Weeks
- The essay by Gerrard Piel
Apart from the other articles in the book, make absolutely sure that you read the first article on pp 1 - 25 as well as Fouad Ajami's response entitled "The Summoning," which appears immediately after Huntington's main essay.
Then definitely read Ajami's reflection on the Huntington thesis written in 2008 in the New York Times here. How has Ajami's thinking evolved over the years? Why? What arguments does he present?
Also, if there is time in the first hour of class on Monday, we may ask you to read this short but devastating critique of Huntington by Edward Said - the late, erudite English literature scholar and social critic.
Optional: If time, skim the final essay (by Samuel Huntington) including pp 62 ("Got a Better Idea?") to the end of the book.
For Monday afternoon and on Tuesday, we will apply Huntington to current "inter-civilizational" conflicts. We will look at the war in Chechnya as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh struggle between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We will also talk about ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Turkey is one of Hungtington's favorite case studies, and we will discuss Turkey in detail on Tuesday.
Optional for Tuesday:
Read this short piece by the historian Niall Ferguson in Newsweek magazine, published in late June, and compare Ferguson's main point with Huntington's thesis as well as with Ajami's comments in the final paragraph of page 29.
Oh, one more thing: On June 22, 2012, two American Muslims were sentenced to long prison terms for threatening to kill South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone in retaliation for a South Park episode in which the prophet Muhammad was depicted in a zip-up bear suit. Remarkably, one of the defendants apologized to the court for "attempting to create a clash of civilizations."
