INS3003 TEST PAPER 2025/2026 QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS GRADED A+ TIP
✔✔Why Might We Have a Clash of Civilizations? - ✔✔-Western Power
-Hasn't provided the same solutions for everyone.
-Basic Differences: geography/language/history
-fundamental differences: Cultural/Religious
-Immutable Culture: unchangeable
-Kin-Country Syndrome
-Civilizational lines draw more states into small disputes.
✔✔Critiques of the Clash of Civilizations Thesis - ✔✔Civilizations in fact have unclear,
porous boundaries--and conflicts of values are as likely to happen within a civilization as
between them.
-Essentialism
-A "clash of ignorance"
-Too Monolithic
-Us vs. Them
-Can it be measured
✔✔Islam vs. the West - ✔✔Islam's "Bloody Borders"; "There were, in short, three times
as many intercivilizational conflicts involving Muslims as there were conflicts between all
non-Muslim civilizations."--Huntington
✔✔Liberal Critiques: Clash of Civilizations - ✔✔-Identities do not necessarily
divide/cause strife
-Shared interests are what are important, and are not dependent on identity
✔✔Realist critique of Clash of Civilizations (3) - ✔✔-Theory is too broad
-Primary actor is the state, not the civilization
-not realistic
✔✔In Huntington's defense - ✔✔-Says that difference is real and is important
-Puts more emphasis on non-Western civilizations
✔✔The Abrahamic Religions (3) - ✔✔Judaism, Christianity, Islam
✔✔Muhammad - ✔✔Arab prophet who founded Islam (570-632). Born in Mecca into the
Quraysh tribe
, ✔✔Mecca - ✔✔the holiest city of Islam; Muhammad's birthplace. Land/sea economic
hub
✔✔Ummah - ✔✔The collective community of Islamic peoples, which is thought to
transcend ethnic and political boundaries. Founded by Muhammad.
✔✔Five Pillars of Islam - ✔✔Declaration of faith, prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage
✔✔Clash of Civilizations - ✔✔Huntington's controversial thesis than in the 21st century
the globe's major civilizations will conflict with one another, leading to anarchy and
warfare similar to that resulting from conflicts between states over the past 500 years;
~11 civilizations in the world; globalization changes the context under which ethnic and
cultural conflict arises
✔✔Christianity vs Islam - ✔✔-Quran (Hadith and Sunna)
-Islam's Relationship to the state & Role of Conquest
-They use Muhammad's life as a role model to conquer the infidels
-Separation of Church and State does not happen in Islam; Shariah
✔✔Rightly Guided Caliphs - ✔✔"Rightly guided":
Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali ibn Abi Talib
✔✔Four Uniting Bonds of Islam - ✔✔Religion (Islam)
Law (Shariah)
Trade
Common language (Arabic)
✔✔The Caliphates of Islam - ✔✔-Legitimists (Shiites) vs. Umayyads (Sunnis)
Ali died. Expansion happened after this break. Damascus.
-Umayyad (661-750)
FInal expansion. Damascus. Internal conflict.
-Abbasid (750-1258)
persian influence. Baghdad. Decentralized. External threats. Seljuks turks from central
Asia and pushed west, Crusades, Mongols
-Ottoman Empire (1299-1923)
✔✔20th Century Humiliation of Islam - ✔✔-1923 we get Turkey
-1924 Caliphate is abolished
-New countries were created in the Middle East
-Israel; propped up by West
✔✔Two Types of Reform - ✔✔-Internal - Fundamentalism (Conservative--esp if people
feel a corruption of religion; not fundamentalist but when reaction is added it is)
-In response to the West
SOLUTIONS GRADED A+ TIP
✔✔Why Might We Have a Clash of Civilizations? - ✔✔-Western Power
-Hasn't provided the same solutions for everyone.
-Basic Differences: geography/language/history
-fundamental differences: Cultural/Religious
-Immutable Culture: unchangeable
-Kin-Country Syndrome
-Civilizational lines draw more states into small disputes.
✔✔Critiques of the Clash of Civilizations Thesis - ✔✔Civilizations in fact have unclear,
porous boundaries--and conflicts of values are as likely to happen within a civilization as
between them.
-Essentialism
-A "clash of ignorance"
-Too Monolithic
-Us vs. Them
-Can it be measured
✔✔Islam vs. the West - ✔✔Islam's "Bloody Borders"; "There were, in short, three times
as many intercivilizational conflicts involving Muslims as there were conflicts between all
non-Muslim civilizations."--Huntington
✔✔Liberal Critiques: Clash of Civilizations - ✔✔-Identities do not necessarily
divide/cause strife
-Shared interests are what are important, and are not dependent on identity
✔✔Realist critique of Clash of Civilizations (3) - ✔✔-Theory is too broad
-Primary actor is the state, not the civilization
-not realistic
✔✔In Huntington's defense - ✔✔-Says that difference is real and is important
-Puts more emphasis on non-Western civilizations
✔✔The Abrahamic Religions (3) - ✔✔Judaism, Christianity, Islam
✔✔Muhammad - ✔✔Arab prophet who founded Islam (570-632). Born in Mecca into the
Quraysh tribe
, ✔✔Mecca - ✔✔the holiest city of Islam; Muhammad's birthplace. Land/sea economic
hub
✔✔Ummah - ✔✔The collective community of Islamic peoples, which is thought to
transcend ethnic and political boundaries. Founded by Muhammad.
✔✔Five Pillars of Islam - ✔✔Declaration of faith, prayer, alms, fasting, and pilgrimage
✔✔Clash of Civilizations - ✔✔Huntington's controversial thesis than in the 21st century
the globe's major civilizations will conflict with one another, leading to anarchy and
warfare similar to that resulting from conflicts between states over the past 500 years;
~11 civilizations in the world; globalization changes the context under which ethnic and
cultural conflict arises
✔✔Christianity vs Islam - ✔✔-Quran (Hadith and Sunna)
-Islam's Relationship to the state & Role of Conquest
-They use Muhammad's life as a role model to conquer the infidels
-Separation of Church and State does not happen in Islam; Shariah
✔✔Rightly Guided Caliphs - ✔✔"Rightly guided":
Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali ibn Abi Talib
✔✔Four Uniting Bonds of Islam - ✔✔Religion (Islam)
Law (Shariah)
Trade
Common language (Arabic)
✔✔The Caliphates of Islam - ✔✔-Legitimists (Shiites) vs. Umayyads (Sunnis)
Ali died. Expansion happened after this break. Damascus.
-Umayyad (661-750)
FInal expansion. Damascus. Internal conflict.
-Abbasid (750-1258)
persian influence. Baghdad. Decentralized. External threats. Seljuks turks from central
Asia and pushed west, Crusades, Mongols
-Ottoman Empire (1299-1923)
✔✔20th Century Humiliation of Islam - ✔✔-1923 we get Turkey
-1924 Caliphate is abolished
-New countries were created in the Middle East
-Israel; propped up by West
✔✔Two Types of Reform - ✔✔-Internal - Fundamentalism (Conservative--esp if people
feel a corruption of religion; not fundamentalist but when reaction is added it is)
-In response to the West
