ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to problematize two faces of Western-centrism, or two prime examples of the revival of old assertions regarding the superiority of the West and the concomitant inferiority of the Rest: Francis Fukuyama's The End History and Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations. It argues that neither the End of History nor the Clash of Civilizations captures the complexity of our contemporary social and political life. The book examines the extent to which a third way of dialogue and the Dignity of Difference may become a solution to both Fukuyama's Universalist paradigm and Huntington's particularist pattern. It suggests the necessity of deconstructing the concepts of radicalism, extremism, and terrorism by challenging the ethnocentric discourse which privileges these terms in order to serve the interest of the global oligarchy.
