Summary Of Betts 'Three Visions Revisited'

In his article Conflict or Cooperation? Three Visions Revisited, Betts outlines three of the most prominent theories about the future of international politics after the end of the Cold War: In The End of History and the Last Man, Fukuyama presents a future in which western liberal democracy remains the only political form, spanning across the globe, after communism vanished. Or to use Betts’s words “ the globalization of Western liberalism… driven by technology and wealth.” In contrast to Fukuyama’s optimistic vision, Huntington saw conflict rather than consensus. In his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remarking of World Order, Huntington argues that a concentration of power among eight basic cultures and predicts a conflict between “the west and
Despite of the very different arguments of the three works, Betts presents some points in which they could agree, beside of the above mentioned two similarities. However, the overlap is always in different constellation between two different books and never between the three of them. The differences seem to be obvious by looking the their theories. By simplifying the differences, one can stated that Fukuyama predicted a promising future world consisting of Western liberalism while Huntington outlined a pessimistic outlook of a clash of civilisation and Mearsheimer saw a rising China and consequently a challenge for the USA. In addition, Betts put the three theories in context of 9/11. He outlines that many saw the 9/11 attacks as “clash of civilisations” what Huntington had predicted in his book and dismissed Fukuyama’s optimism. As a realist, Mearsheimer, had nothing to say about the attacks since terrorist groups do not posses the capabilities, compare to great powers, to seriously challenge a powerful state such a the