Huntington believed that conflict would take place at both micro and macro levels. At a micro level (within civilizations) there would be struggle over borders and territories, he said that groups would clash ‘like tectonic plates’. By this he meant that the tension between groups either side of borders would slowly build until somewhere the tension would lead to a rupture or a clash in this case. On a macro level global conflict driven buy core states on each side trying to dominate one another through their control of global institutions would drive the conflict. Huntingdon argued that due to the fact groups within the world had so many beliefs and traditions that conflict was inevitable as groups would never be able to agree on everything. He imagined the three key conflicts would be the East v West, West v China and the ‘West v the rest’. Many would argue that there has been an large increase in the clash of civilizations in recent years, this notion is likely to have developed from the major terrorist attacks that we have witnessed in the last 2 decades such as 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings as well as an increase in globalization. However one can see that as opposed to an increase in a clash of civilizations there has in fact been a stronger rise in tensions between different groups within borders. In this essay I will investigate the contested areas within the public and tabloid-fuelled debate and speculation to find the reality.
Huntingdon defined religion as the ‘central defining characteristic’ therefore the clash of religions thesis suggests that it is in fact a clash of religions. One would think that considering that religions often have the same roots such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity all derive their beliefs from the Old Testament of the The Bible then these groups will surely accept one another’s views. However in reality as long as there is a difference in