‘SAM Huntington’s ghost lurked in every shadowy corner.” Thus the American ambassador to Indonesia reported on the Asia-Pacific regional conference in Jakarta in August 1993. He was referring to the initial impact of Professor Huntington’s thesis that we are entering an era that will be dominated by the “clash of civilizations”—conflicts caused by and reflecting cultural differences. Ten months later, I return from another such conference in Kuala Lumpur to report that the impact has not diminished. As we talked, difficult dealings with North Korea over nuclear weapons served as a grim warning of the potential costs of cultural incomprehension and antagonism.
It is the spectacular rise of Asia—first Japan, then a cluster of small Confucian “tigers,” now China itself, and tomorrow probably India—that gives Huntington’s thesis most of its plausibility and relevance. For the first time in several centuries, the primacy of Western civilization is under serious challenge.
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