Clash of Civilizations

The Russet, Oneal, and Cox model is not appropriate for assessing Huntingtons theory, as they examine primarily interstate conflicts during the Cold War period, and Huntingtons thesis pertains to the post-Cold War period (Huntington, 2000). Despite the fact that the Russet, Oneal, and Cox model has been successful in assessing interstate relations from 1945-1990, as they themselves show (Russet et al., 2000), it does not adequately inform our understanding of migratory pressures, ethnic tensions and other intersubjective forces arising during the post-Cold War period (Huntington, 2000). As such, Huntington's theory of a "clash of civilizations" must be taken into account but can only be fully appraised by use of different methodological tools than the ones employed by Russet et al - methods which focus on non-traditional elements of security and intersocietal dynamics (Huntington, 1993; 2000). It is therefore evident that Russet et al's model may provide useful insights concerning interstate conflict analysis but is inadequate as an evaluative tool for Huntington's...

It tracks the dynamics of war through multiple variables, including that of wealth inequality between nation states. It is clear...…They collected data from a period altogether inappropriate to the central thesis of Huntington. They analyzed the data and showed that it would force one to reject Huntingtons hypothesis. However, Huntingtons hypothesis is not based on Cold War data. In fact, it is based on post-Cold War data. And the only way to test it is to use post-Cold War information. This could ostensibly be collected now, as more than two decades have passed since Huntingtons (2000) rebuttal of Russet et al. Doing so would essentially help to validate Huntingtons theorybut appropriate measures and variables would have to be included in the analysis, according to…