A new idea popular in the global arena today is that of "the clash of cultures." Now that humanity appears to be moving out of the era of world wars the main conflict is becoming no longer military but cultural. It is no longer a question of a clash of armies but one of ideas and beliefs. This encounter is primarily occurring in the media sphere where cultures collide, with political, information and business campaigns. However, the media itself is the vehicle and sometimes the weapon mainly for one culture, the Western European and American, at least until other groups learn how to use it effectively.

Votaries of the clash of cultures view divide the world into various cultural spheres defined primarily by geography and religion. First is Christian Western Europe and North America with liberal humanitarian and free trade values that now dominate the world. Related to this is the Orthodox Christian Russian and Eastern Europe sphere with similar traditions but a greater tendency toward central control and totalitarianism. Quite different than these two is Islamic North Africa and the Middle East, where there is no separation of church and state and religious law still rules supreme and often without tolerance. 

Beyond these spheres, which have had considerable historical interchange, lies Confucian China with a powerful and strongly ordered hierarchical society that has little regard for the individual or human rights. Finally there is Hindu India and the Indian subcontinent with diverse traditions of spirituality but a lack of concern for social development, including little cohesiveness politically and much backwardness economically. Outside these major spheres are native African, American and Asian groups, including tribal peoples, who are generally being displaced by one or more of these dominant  cultural groups, with the proselytizing religions of Christianity and Islam making the greatest inroads.

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