GLOBAL UTOPIAS AND CLASHING CIVILIZATIONS - MISUNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT

This is an edited text of the 23rd Martin Wight Memorial Lecture deliv ered at the Royal Institute of International Affairs on 14 October 199 7 in which John Gray argues that international conflict does not come from 'clashes of civilization', but rather from the conflicting intere sts and policies of states. In order to cope better with such conflict s, we should understand that some conflicts of are intractable.