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  3. In the post Cold War world few articles have influenced how Western policymakers view the world more than Samuel Huntington’s 19

In the post Cold War world few articles have influenced how Western policymakers view the world more than Samuel Huntington’s 19

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问题    In the post Cold War world few articles have influenced how Western policymakers view the world more than Samuel Huntington’s 1993 article, "The Clash of Civilizations." Suggesting that the world was returning to a civilization dominated world where future conflicts would originate from clashes between ’ civilizations,’ the theory has been broadly criticized for oversimplification, ignoring local conflicts and for incorrectly predicting what has happened in the decade since its publication. The claim made by many that September the 11th has vindicated Huntington is simply not supported by the evidence.
   Huntington’s thesis outlines a future where the " great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural." He divides the world’s cultures into seven current civilizations, Western, Latin American, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu and Slavic-Orthodox. In addition he judged Africa only as a possible civilization depending on how far one viewed the development of an African consciousness had developed. These civilizations seem to be defined primarily by religion with a number of ad hoc exceptions.
   Huntington predicts conflicts occurring between states from different civilizations for control of international institutions and for economic and military power. He views this mix of conflicts as normal by asserting that nation-states are a new phenomenon in a world dominated for most of its history by conflicts between civilizations. This is a dubious statement as the inter-civilizational conflict driven mainly by geo-political factors rather than cultural differences is an equally if not more persuasive way to view much of history.
   The theory at least differentiates between non-Western civilizations rather than grouping them together. He also explains how the West presents pro-Western policies as positive for the entire world and that the very idea of a universal culture is a Western idea. However, his escape from a Eurocentric bias is only temporary. He completely fails to account for local cultures even though one can argue they collectively comprise a separate civilization. The article also predicts future conflicts will be started by non-Western civilizations reacting to Western power and values ignoring the equally plausible situation where Western states use their military superiority to maintain their superior positions. The policy prescriptions he suggests to counter this perceived threat equate to increasing the power of the West to forestall any loss of the West’s pre-eminence. Thus he suggests the Latin American and Orthodox-Slavic civilizations be drawn further into the Western orbit and the maintenance of Western military superiority.
According to the author, Huntington’s theory is quite______.
选项 A、provocative
B、ambiguous
C、questionable
D、high-sounding
答案C
解析 本题是观点态度题，从文章第一段中的ignoring和incorrectly predicting，以及第三段中的a dubious statement等用词中可以把握作者的观点和立场。
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