Global Utopias and Clashing Civilizations: Misunderstanding the Present

This is an edited text of the 23rd Martin Wright Memorial Lecture delivered at the Royal Institute of International Affairs on 14 October 1997 in which John Gray argues that international conflict does not come from 'clashes of civilization', but rather from the conflicting interests and policies of states. In order to cope better with such conflicts, we should understand that some conflicts are intractable.