Debating Civilizations is a series of lectures that explore the relationship between Muslim and Western civilizations. It attempts to explore the commonalities and differences between different cultures and societies and how exchanges between them took place in the past and continue into the present. While there may be no single definition of what constitutes Muslim and Western civilizations, the speakers will reflect on the overlapping and interdependent nature of civilizational encounters.

Ever since the end of the Cold war, many have speculated that the US needs another enemy. One world leader and several major journalists predicted that the Soviet menace would be replaced by the Islamic menace. That was political and journalistic wisdom, but hardly public policy rhetoric until the publication of a Harvard professor's article in the prestigious journal Foreign Affairs in Summer 1993. In Samuel P. Huntington’s provocative piece"The Clash of Civilizations?", he argued that this is not just the end of the Cold War but the beginning of the next war—a war based on the collision or clash of civilizational values. Professor Huntington has continued to speak on this topic, publishing a book entitled The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996). Now with the catastrophe of 11 September, he is declaiming even more loudly that he was right. The clash of civilizations, in his view, has become the age of Muslim wars.

Yet it may well be necessary to debate civilizations before judging them. This age is about more than Islam. It involves a host of issues that cannot be so neatly blamed on a clash of civilizational values. There is no neat equation of one place, one religion or one civilization. In each part of the globe, multiple civilizations, cultures and values co-exist at different levels of ease and tension. The purpose of this series is to examine the complex ways in which Muslims encounter issues of politics, gender, religion, education, and literature in a multicultural and global context.

Debating Civilizations is hosted by the Duke University Center for International Studies and is co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, the Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, and the US Department of Education. Additional contributors include the Center for the Study of Muslim Networks, the Center for South Asia Studies, the Department of Religion, and the Department of Cultural Anthropology.

For information on the paired Seminar Series (for Faculty & students), see Muslim Networks website.