After the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the intervention of the West led by the Americans in the Gulf, the perception of globalization became the central and undisputed axis of Western ideology.

For at least ten years, the perception of Fukuyama's "end of history" seemed to serve as the guiding principle of the West, until the anti-globalization movement, which peaked in Genoa in July 2001, and the Islamist attacks in New York and Washington in September violently altered the landscape.

Globalization is being ideologically challenged within Western societies in a massive and radical way, while the "clash of civilizations," as envisioned by Huntington, looms in the most nightmarish way from the ruins of the World Trade Center.