Samuel Huntington's thesis on "The clash of civilisations" of 1993 provoked a plethora of varied responses. A Professor at Harvard University, Huntington wrote in order to voice his predictions and warn the world of an upcoming clash of cultures, most notably between the West and Islam. The recent reaction in the Middle East to America's self-styled 'war on terrorism' provides a timely case study for this debate. While an affinity will often exist between countries with similar cultural characteristics, great differences within 'civilisations' and the existence of national interests make unity unlikely. Certainly, cultural differences alone will not be enough to cause a clash. However, anticipating such an outcome and dividing nations into groups according Huntington's civilisations will only make the outcome more likely. Huntington also fails to convincingly outline why he believes different 'civilisation' values are irreconcilable, apparently unchanging and almost immune from each others' influence. This paper...