As ideological distinctions among nations have been replaced by cultural differences, world politics has been reconfigured. Across the globe, new conflicts and alliances have replaced the old order of the Cold War era. In this contemporary classic of political science, Samuel Huntington explains how the population explosion in Muslim countries and the economic rise of East Asia are changing global politics, in opposition to supposedly "universal" Western ideals. Huntington offers a strategy for the West to preserve its unique culture, and emphasizes the need for people everywhere to learn to coexist in a complex, multipolar, multi-civilizational world.