The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder

by Gilbert Achcar

"This inquiry into the probable shape of things to come is sober, uncompromising, deeply informed, and full of provocative insights and judicious analyses." Noam Chomsky "The most forceful, most rigorous text that there is to read on this war." Le Monde Diplomatique The volatile Middle East is the site of vast resources, profound passions, frequent crises, and long-standing conflicts, as well as a major source of international tensions and a key site of direct U.S. intervention. Two of the most astute analysts of this part of the world are Noam Chomsky, the preeminent critic of U.S. foreign policy, and Gilbert Achcar, a leading specialist of the Middle East who lived in that region for many years. In their new book, Chomsky and Achcar bring a keen understanding of the internal dynamics of the Middle East and of the role of the United States, taking up all the key questions of interest to concerned citizens, including such topics as terrorism, fundamentalism, conspiracies, oil, democracy, self-determination, anti-Semitism, and anti-Arab racism, as well as the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the sources of U.S. foreign policy. This book provides the best readable introduction for all who wish to understand the complex issues related to the Middle East from a perspective dedicated to peace and justice.

Genres: Politics, History, Economics, American, Nonfiction, Middle East

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Gilbert Achcar is a Lebanese academic, writer, and socialist. He is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. His research interests cover the Near East and North Africa, the foreign policy of the United States, Globalisation, Islam, and Islamic fundamentalism. He is also a Fellow at the International Institute for Research and Education.

Reviews

[abclaret]

Gilbert Achcar is a radical who seems to have taken up with the legacy of Ernest Mandel. So he's nominally an orthodox marxist. This can be viewed alongside Tariq Ali's The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity, although this is a damn sight smaller. Alongside his analysis of globalisation and imperialist hegemony leading the worlds chaos he works out a critique of young radical islamists that I thought was quite profound and I haven't read anything to compare to it since.

[Younes Mowafak]

كتاب كنت احاول ان اقرأه ببطء لما يحتويه من معلومات دسمة ومكثفة... لا اعرف كيف أشكر الاستاذ جلبير الأشقر على هذا المُنجز العظيم

[Yazan Haddad]

يبدو الكتاب كرد عربي على كتاب صدام الحضارات لصامويل هانتنجتون و لكنه للأسف مقتصر على امثلة متعلقة ب ١١ سبتمبر و بالتالي يتخذ الولايات المتحدة كنموذج للدولة التي تقطف ثمار ما زرعت. اعتقد ان اقتباسات الكاتب موفقة لكن استخدام مثال واحد لا يرقى للشمولية في امثلة هنتنجتون الذي غطى الكثير من الصراعات

[Abdelilah Maafi]

"صدام الهمجيات" يكشف تواطؤ السياسات الغربية في تغذية الإرهاب، محاججًا بأن العنف المتبادل ليس صراع حضارات، بل نتيجة لسياسات إمبريالية وهمجية مضادة.

[SADIK BAYDERE]

Bilhassa soğuk savaşın bitimi sonrası kendisini dünyanın jandarması gören kibirli, Hobbes'çu Leviathan ABD'nin, dünyada terörü yoketmek ve demokrasi getirmek masalı adına ortaya koyduğu barbarlığının doğurduğu karşı-barbarlığın kendisine karşı öfkesini 11 Eylül ve benzeri eylemlerle kustuğunu, bunun dünyaya barış ve demokrasi getirmenin tam aksi sonuçlar doğuracağını haklı olarak iddia ediyor Gilbert Achcar. Ve şöyle bitiriyor kitabını, Truva Şavaşındaki Akhilleus (Aşil) mitine atıf yaparak:

"Rus düşmanı Hektor'u yenen ABD'li Akhilleus, düşmanını küçük düşürmekten vazgeçmedi. Çok daha az önem taşıyan bir diğer düşman (Paris) ise onu en zayıf noktasından, ağır bir şekilde vurdu. Kendi ölçüsüz kibriyle gözü kamaşan Akhilleus kendisine karşı gelen herkese karşı saldırıya geçti, topuğunu ise askeri botlar giyerek koruyabileceğini düşündü. İçindeki 'hubris', kaçınılmaz olarak, tanrıların intikam tanrıçası Nemesis'in öfkesini tetikliyor ve tetiklemeye devam edecek"...

[James Igoe]

I had the opportunity to listen to Achcar lecture at La Maison Francaise at NYU, and found his view intriguing, if not entirely acceptable, and certainly worthy of inclusion into a broader worldview. His English is faltering, but the translation is excellent and the book is well structured. Also, the book is about 100 pages long, and I found it an easy read, although not simply written. Reading the book would not take a great amount of time, and it provides a wealth of solid, but little known, historical and political information.

The largest takeaway from his analysis is a more balanced approach to international interactions, and a detailed analysis of the history of the Middle East and Islam, as it relates to political struggles. His analysis is akin to Chomsky's understanding of American political strategy, but also dovetails contrapuntally with more mainstream writers such as Brzezniski.

[sologdin]

Fairly plainly a reply to Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' argument that was made popular during the invasion of Afghanistan, taking a slightly different approach than Tariq Ali's Clash of Fundamentalisms.

Effective, generally, in drawing out the dialectical arguments necessitated by the acceptance of Huntington's basic thesis. One might accordingly accept this argument to the same extent that one accepts Huntington.

Author otherwise has good politics, and he's not wrong in his basis analysis of the Bush regime or US policy.

[Omar El shafei]

An excellent analysis of the background to 9/11. The oil question and the strategic US-Saudi alliance are dealt with so deeply. A concise analysis written with erudition and sense of humor despite the tragic things it covers. A source of hope.

[Al Matthews]

Analysis. Worthwhile. Cards: held. See also Retort.