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Samuel P. Huntington proposed his theory in the 1993 Foreign Affairs article A Clash ofCivilizations? He alsopublisheda book in 1996 called The Clash of Civilizations and theRemaking of World Order based on the article. According to him, the future faultlinewillcenter around culture and religion. His theory of the clash of civilizations predicts alignments

and wars among various civilizationsWestern, Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, Orthodox/Russian,Hindu, African, and Latin. The term clash of civilizations was first used by Bernard Lewis inan article in the September 1990 issue of The Atlantic Monthly titled The Roots of MuslimRage.

According to Huntington,

The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflictsof global politics will occur between nations andgroupsof different civilizations. The clash ofcivilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be thebattle lines of the future.

One of his hypotheses predicts a world war among the worlds major civilizations in 2020.According to this hypothesis, American troops will have left Korea, which will lead to Koreanreunification and a reduced presence for American troops in Japan. Taiwan and mainlandChina will reach an accommodation in which Taiwan continues to have most of its de factoindependence but explicitly acknowledges Beijings suzerainty, and withChinassponsorshipbe admitted to the United Nations on the model of Ukraine and Belorussiain 1946. China will attack Vietnam over the oil in the South China Sea and to avenge itshumiliation in 1979. Because American companies are involved in the development of these oilfields on behalf of Vietnam, the U.S. will send one of its few remaining carrier task forces tothe South China Sea following Vietnams appeal for help and despite Chinas warning to theU.S., Japan, and others to stay out of the conflict. In response, China launches a military

strike against the American task force. Negotiations for a cease-fire led by the U.N. secretarygeneral and the Japanese prime minister fail, resulting in Japanese neutrality and its refusal toallow the U.S. to use its bases for action against China; the U.S. will use these bases despitethe Japanese quarantine. The Chinese navy and air force, operating from both the mainlandand Taiwan, will inflict serious damage on American ships and facilities in East Asia. China willoccupy a major portion of Vietnam, including Hanoi.

According to Huntingtons hypothesis, the United States will refrain from escalating this warbecause domestic public opinion will regard it as a war for American hegemony in SoutheastAsia or control of the South China Sea. In the meantime, after watching China engage in a warin East Asia, India will attack Pakistan, as a result of which Iran will join the conflict onPakistans side. At the same time, Chinas initial successes against the United States will

stimulate major anti-Western movements in Muslim societies, and pro-Western regimes in Arabnations and Turkey will be ousted by the Muslim youth bulge (males between the ages of 16and 30). The surge of anti-Westernism encouraged by Western weakness will lead to a massiveArab attack on Israel, which the much-reduced U.S. Sixth Fleet will be unable to stop.

Because of Chinese military successes, Japan will change its position from neutral to pro-Chinese and occupy American bases in Japan, causing the U.S. to evacuate its troops fromthose bases. The United States will declare a blockade on Japan, and American and Japaneseships will engage in sporadic duels in the Western Pacific. At the start of the conflict, Chinawill offer a mutual security pact to Russia (vaguely reminiscent of the Hitler-Stalin pact),which Russia declines. Russia will take an anti-China stance because of its fear of Chinesedominance of East Asia, and reinforce its troops in Siberia, resulting in a revolt by the

numerous Chinese settlers there, bringing Chinese troops into the conflict. China will occupyVladivostok, the Amur River valley, and other key parts of eastern Siberia. As fighting spreads

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between Russian and Chinese troops in central Siberia, uprisings occurs in Mongolia, whichChina had earlier placed under a protectorate.

Huntingtons hypothetical hostilities thus far have been limited to East Asia and the Indiansubcontinent. In order to expand them into the conflagration of a world war, he furtherhypothesizes that China and Iran will secretly deploy intermediate-range, nuclear-capablemissiles in Bosnia and Algeria in order to intimidate Americas European allies from joining theU.S. This has the opposite effect, however, because before NATO can mobilize, Serbia, wishingto reclaim its historic role as the defender of Christianity against the Turks, invades Bosnia.Croatia joins in, and the two countries occupy and partition Bosnia, capture the missiles, andproceed with efforts to complete the ethnic cleansing they had been forced to stop in the1990s. Albania and Turkey then attempt to help the Bosnians, and Greece and Bulgaria invadeTurkey. Meanwhile, a missile with a nuclear warhead, launched from Algeria, explodes outsideMarseilles, and NATO retaliates with devastating air attacks on North African targets.

Huntingtons hypothesis postulates a global conflict between two alliancesthe U.S., Europe,Russia, and India on one side, and China, Japan, and most of Islam on the other. Because bothsides have major nuclear capabilities and these are brought into play, both sides could be

substantially destroyed; but if mutual deterrence is effective, mutual exhaustion might lead toa negotiated armistice. The West may be able to defeat China by supporting insurrectionsagainst Chinese rule by Tibetans, Uighurs, and Mongolians, and by deploying Western andRussian forces eastward into Siberia for a final assault on Beijing, Manchuria, and the Hanheartland. According to Huntington, because the economic, demographic, and military powerof the major participants in the war will decline dramatically as a result of the conflict, thecenter of world politics will move south to nations that avoid it, such as the Latin Americannations, New Zealand, Mynamar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India also if it escapesmajor devastation despite its participation.