ABSTRACT
The relationship between Islam and the West occupies center stage in the post-Cold War debate over the future direction of international affairs. Historically, the West has known, or thought it has known, a great deal about Islam, and certainly much more than the Islamic world has known about the West. A prominent school of historiography has been established around the "loss of Mediterranean unity" and the negative and enduring consequences for Europe and relations between Europe and the Islamic world. European interaction with its Asian and Mediterranean periphery has been a dominant factor in the evolution of the continent's own sense of its geopolitical position and world role. The legacy of Islam in Europe arguably contributes to differences between Washington and its European allies on policy toward the crisis in Yugoslavia and, specifically, attitudes toward Bosnia. The rise of Byzantium and the schism between East and West within the Roman Empire and Christianity reinforced the perception of civilizational "frontiers".
