The Real 'Clash of Civilizations' Will Happen at Home

Samuel Huntington envisioned enduring hostility between Islam and the West. But that thesis hasn’t come to pass — and it overlooks the identity crisis that will truly define this century.

I have an end-of-year piece in the Boston Globe that takes a step back and examines the future of democracy and conflict in world politics—and what the future holds for the West, for America, for the next generation.

The piece begins with Harvard professor Samuel Huntington’s controversial ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis, published in 1993, goes into We…