Unlike the jarring, ruthless, civilisational changes of the 1990s, the changes to Moscow over the past five years were almost imperceptible on a month-to-month basis.
Some also believe that somewhere under the Qila are the remains of a legendary city that's a civilisational navel of sorts.
The second is Muslim Europe and whether episodes such as this are part of a civilisational struggle between Western democracies and extreme Islam, on a battlefield stretching continuously from Peshawar to Raqqa to the centre of Paris.
With its (mostly subconscious) allusions to the cold war and the uncertain relationship between Islam and the West, the world "civilisational" contest has come to be reserved for a titanic clash of values as well as arms.
"It was in Crimea, in the ancient city of Chersonesus or Korsun, that Grand Prince Vladimir was baptised before bringing Christianity to Rus…this allows us to say that Crimea and Sevastopol have invaluable civilisational and even sacred importance for Russia.
"We are in the early stages of what I would describe as the third world war," Newt Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said in July.What's new, and what isn'tIt is wrong to look at the post-September 11th world this way, as if every local conflict is part of a civilisational clash.
National security hawks and religious conservatives see Mr Netanyahu as a hero in a civilisational clash with radical Islam.
But is it in Russia's interest to call the Chechen war a "civilisational" one, when that could alienate so many Muslims who live deep in the Slavic heartland?
Benjamin Bratton, a sociologist, goes further and suggests that TED is a recipe for "civilisational disaster".
Its security priority is to receive credible reassurances on plans for stabilising Afghanistan and ensuring it never again becomes a Talibanised client of Pakistan.America, for its part, wants to see India further reduce imports of oil from Iran, with which Indian leaders like to boast of their "civilisational" ties.
Perhaps al-Qaeda's proclamation of a civilisational war has been, in part, self-fulfilling: millions of Muslims regard their faith as being in a state of confrontation, along many fronts, with the West.
