International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations

40th annual international conference, June 15–17, 2010

Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, USA

Theme: The Creation of One Global Culture

The election of Obama was a great opening to bring up a whole range of questions for debate and paper presentations: whether Obama is challenging the notion of American "exceptionalism", whether he wants to disconnect America from its European-Western background, transform the US into a globalized culture with stronger links to non-Western cultures?

• Related topics for paper presentation include: Why did the Scandinavian "social democratic model" or the "maximalist" welfare state, for all its “family-friendly” policies (maternity leave, educational leave, government health care) engendered a child-less generation heading for extinction? Why do secular couples reproduce less than religious couples? Can Europe survive with a birth rate below replacement? Should Europe opt for an Islamic-Christian civilization to sustain itself demographically and economically? Is Australia facing a choice: will it be Western or Asian? How important is national loyalty and citizenship to the survival of cultures?

• Will Japanese and Chinese civilizations forever refuse to join the multicultural crowd? How do the Chinese handle their ethnic minorities? What are China's plans for the augmentation of its global power? Will African civilization remain a dead end of wasted hopes? Is the Chinese model of investment in Africa the best hope? Is Christianity an essential attribute of America's identity or is it a multi-religious culture? What are the major theological differences between Christianity and Islam?

• Was Spengler correct, after all? -- on the decadence of the West: the exhaustion of Europe's cultural traditions, the breakdown of the family unit, lack of competitiveness in power politics, quasi-pacifism, and hedonistic self-indulgence? Was Hegel right: "War protects the people from the corruption which an everlasting peace would bring upon it"?

• How can past civilizational crises inform the present? What can we learn about the decline of the Mayan, Roman, Aztecs? Is “Global Warming” a manufactured crisis? Tariq Ramadan versus Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Edward Said’s “Orientalism” versus Ibn Warraq’s “Defense of the West”; Jacques Barzun’s High Culture versus Jared Diamond’s Hunters and Gatherers.

Submission Deadline: April 15, 2010