ABSTRACT
Since the end of the Cold War, a plethora of scholars have advanced a range of theories concerning the future likely state of the world as we enter the new millennium. Some argue that we have just witnessed the final victory of the West (capitalism), and that countries everywhere will now adapt their political systems to those of the West. Others, exemplified by Samuel P Huntingdon in his book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, argue that the world, for the first time in its history, is now both multi-polar and multicivilizational. Huntingdon describes a world in which countries increasingly identify their allies and enemies along civilizational lines based on the main cultures and religions, and predicts the possible decline of the ascendancy of ‘the west’ in the new millennium.
