Those behind the merger plan will be hoping that synergy - rather than culture clash - will be the result.

BBC: Analysis

Greed was their motivation rather than a clash of faiths.

ECONOMIST: The new symbols of anti-Americanism

Partisan politics is driven by team loyalty rather than a fundamental clash of worldviews.

FORBES: Lessons from the 2010 Election

We have a chance of both countering our common foe, the non-Islamist Muslims and ourselves, and I think ensuring that this is thought properly as it should at the ideological level, rather than becoming this Huntingtonesque clash of civilizations.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Gaffney debates on Hugh Hewitt show

Europe's diversity may once have been a disadvantage, a clash of cultures and languages rather than a healthy mix of skills.

ECONOMIST: Europe's tech entrepreneurs

The deaths in this central Myanmar town also raise the specter of a new facet to such conflicts, since this latest clash involved ethnic Burmese Muslims, rather than the ethnic minority Rohingyas, who aren't officially counted in the country's census and are seen as a foreign group by many in Myanmar.

WSJ: Calm Restored in Myanmar, Underlining Military's Role

Because its job is to make rules and eliminate patronage, rather than sniff out actual corruption, the committee seems fated to clash with the control freak in Mr Blair.

ECONOMIST: A very British sleazebuster

Although Arab peoples may revere the study, writing, and teaching of history, their leaders are more likely to view a clash of historians as a source of threat, rather than a source of strength.

NPR: Historian Robert Satloff