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The Clash of Civilizations?

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Debating the War of Ideas

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Abstract

“The Muslim situation is so desperate. I would gladly give my life for their cause.” These were the chilling words of my dinner companion on a balmy spring evening at an elegant upscale restaurant in Amman. A seasoned diplomat in smart attire, complete with pink silk tie and handkerchief, this former Iraqi ambassador, now head of a major Arab think tank, spoke in measured and quiet tones shaped by years of service, making his message all the more forlorn: “I have nothing to live for. I have lost my culture, my homeland, my honor. I have lost my religion.”

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Notes

  1. Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer 1993), pp. 22–49.

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  2. See Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999), p. xix.

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  3. For a recent analysis of new trends in reality television and its capacity to re-create aspects of social identity and consumer lifestyle, as well as to change ordinary people into celebrities and celebrities into ordinary people, see Dana Heller, Makeover Television: Realities Remodeled (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006).

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  4. Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations (London: Continuum, 2002), pp. 106–107.

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  5. Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996).

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  6. Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Pantheon, 2006).

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  7. David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 379.

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  8. Bob Woodward, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), p. 134.

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  9. Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses (New York: Henry Holt, 2000).

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  10. Philip Haiti, History of the Arabs (New York: St. Martin’s, 1970), p. 363.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brookings Institution in addition to his tenure appointment, American University, USA

    Akbar Ahmed (visiting fellow)

Authors
  1. Akbar Ahmed
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgetown University, USA

    Eric D. Patterson (Visiting Assistant Professor of Government) (Visiting Assistant Professor of Government)

  2. National Security Council, USA

    John Gallagher (U.S. Army officer and a former director in the Office of Iraq and Afghanistan Affairs) (U.S. Army officer and a former director in the Office of Iraq and Afghanistan Affairs)

Copyright information

© 2009 Eric D. Patterson and John Gallagher

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Ahmed, A. (2009). The Clash of Civilizations?. In: Patterson, E.D., Gallagher, J. (eds) Debating the War of Ideas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230101982_8

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