Read the summary and the most important questions on State failure and the clash of civilisations: an examination of the magnitude and extent of domestic civilisational conflict from 1950 to 1996

• 1 Introduction

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• This study takes a quantitative look at Huntington's clash of civilisations. What does the study show?

  The study ultimately shows that that there is no clear evidence to suggest that civilisational conflict is more intense and increasing in relation to the non-civilisational conflict.

• What two things does this study ask?

  Firstly it looks at the question whether civilisational conflict has become more violent, intense, and more frequent post- Cold war. Secondly, it asks whether Huntingtons prediction is correct about Islamic civilisation being more engaged in conflict in this post cold war period. 

• What are the 3 ways in which domestic conflicts have increasingly become important in the international arena?

  1. Post-cold war there have been many internal conflicts of great proportion. Due to the economic interdependence and media coverage of such conflicts these domestic conflicts tend to carry with them an impact
  2. International intervention and humanitarian intervention have been widely accepted which has changed the original power structure that was in place pre- cold war.
  3. Domestic conflicts often cross boarders. Examples are ethnic group cleansing or because of immigration.

• 2 The Debate over Huntington's Theory

• Based on Huntington's classification of civilisation, Fox proposes three main hypotheses. What are they?

  1. Civilisational state failures increase in the post- cold war era in relation to non-civilisational state failures and in absolute terms
  2. Non-civilisational state failures will decrease in the post cold war era
  3. Civilisational state failure will be more intense than non-civilisational state failures

• Fox makes two additional, subordinate claims based on H. What are they?  

  1. Civilisational state failures including the islamic civilisation  will increase in proportion to-, and in absolution to other civilisational conflicts
  2. Conflicts between the West and a confucian-islamic connection will intensively increase after the cold war.

• What role does the intrusion of distance play?  

  This is commentary delivered by some authors who believe that economic interdependence and mass communications will make sure that the world is more united. Because of this we should be witness of a decline in conflict

• Is the Us Vs. Them mentality as proposed by Huntington a correct prediction?  

  No. Some studies have showed that in the post-cold war era there have been more intra-civilisational conflicts rather than inter-civilisational conflicts

• There was a study that showed that there is a connection between international ethnic alliances and international conflict, which seems to reinforce Huntington's predictions. According to Fox, why can we dismiss this?

  Firstly, the study does not specifically look at increases or decreases at the end of the cold war. Secondly, The evidence in this study looks at ethnic conflict rather than civilisational conflict

   

• Why is this study (Fox) different and more relevant than those previous studies?

  Many of the prior studies were not focused on testing Huntington's theory and moreover, represent resemblances to the theory and predictions of Huntington. In short, those studies were mostly coincidences, whilst this one looks at it specifically.

• 3 Methodology

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• What is the main goal of this study?

  The main goal is to specifically test the Clash of Civilisations with an actual data set on domestic conflict