ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines both the European and Chinese experiences based on the assumption that from a contemporary, inclusive perspective both were flawed. Ideological wars between communism and democracy will give way, Samuel P. Huntington argued, to cultural wars among Christian, Confucian, and Moslem civilizations. Giandomenico Picco, former United Nations assistant secretary-general for political affairs, proposed that the challenge before human societies today is to bring forth "leaders who can lead without an enemy. At the heart of historical activity several dynamics emerge from the dialogues between Chinese and Western European civilizations. The fundamental energy motivating the histories of both Europe and China has been the creative dynamic between individual groups and structures of state authority. Perhaps the future has weighed too heavily in the Western tradition, and the past has been an excessive preoccupation of Chinese civilization.
