The US publisher HarperCollins paid Bhutto half a million dollars to produce a book, to be titled Reconciliation. Co-written with the U.S. political scientist and journalist Mark Siegel, it would be published in 2008 as Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West. Reconciliation was partly a response to the Clash of Civilisations theory that had been popularised by the American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington during the 1990s.[414] She argued that Huntington’s theory denied the universality of democratic ideals and created a “self-fulfilling prophecy of fear” whereby it provoked the conflicts that it claimed to predict.
In Reconciliation she proposed that Western countries finance a new “Marshall Plan” to aid the poor in Muslim-majority countries, believing that this would improve Islamic attitudes toward the West. Bhutto believed that democracy was essential for Pakistan’s progress. She consistently spoke out against military rule and centralized power, advocating instead for parliamentary democracy and civil liberties. Her vision extended beyond politics — she aspired to create a Pakistan where women could participate freely in education, the workforce, and leadership roles.
