Inter-civilizational relations : why clash when you can cooperate?

![CDATA[Most people tend to think of themselves primarily as individuals, as members of a family or community, or as citizens of a state. Most of us, however, also belong to larger collectives known as civilizations (Arlt and Daviau 2009; Holton and Nasson 2009). Throughout much of human history, it is unlikely that many people have actually thought in terms of civilizational identity, civilizational loyalty or civilizational belonging; our daily circumstances simply do not promote such thinking, we tend to move in far smaller circles and operate on a much lower level of affiliation. Moreover, it would be a relatively rare circumstance in which people have thought of their own personal security and wellbeing in relation to or as being immediately dependent upon the security and welfare of the civilization (or civilizations) to which they might belong (Bowden 2010). But that is not to suggest that such circumstances do not eventuate from time to time, the effects of climate change being a good case in point (Fagan 2004, 2008).]]