The Clash of Barbarisms

With Professor Gilbert Achcar. Rather than the “clash of civilizations” forecasted by Samuel Huntington in the 1990s, the world has been descending into what could most accurately be described as a clash of barbarisms, the clash of barbaric trends fostered within each civilizational sphere by the unravelling of the post-war social pact and the dismantling of social protections brought along by the neoliberal age. The fate of the Arab Spring provides a tragic illustration of this most worrying evolution. The famous alternative between “socialism or barbarism” that Rosa Luxemburg formulated during the First World War is now again highly relevant and a matter of historical urgency. Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, researched and taught in Beirut, Paris and Berlin, and is currently, since 2007, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS, University of London.
Nearest tube station Farringdon. 6.45pm (doors open 6.30).