Samuel P. Huntington

Samuel Phillips Huntington (born April 18, 1927) is a political scientist known for his analysis of the relationship between the military and the civil government, his investigation of coup d'etats, and his thesis that the central political actors of the 21st century will be civilizations rather than nation-states. More recently, he garnered widespread attention for his analysis of threats posed to the United States by modern-day immigration. He is a professor at Harvard University. Huntington came to prominence as a scholar in the 1960s with the publication of Political Order in Changing Societies, a work which challenged the conventional view of modernization theorists that economic and social progress would bring about stable democracies in recently decolonized countries.

The Clash of Civilizations

In 1993, Huntington ignited a major debate in international relations with the publication in the journal Foreign Affairs of an extremely influential and often-cited article entitled "The Clash of Civilizations?" The article contrasted with another political thesis regarding the core dynamics of post-Cold War geopolitics expressed by Francis Fukuyama in "The End of History." Huntington later expanded the article into a full-length book, published in 1996 by Simon and Schuster, entitled The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The article and the book articulated his views that post-Cold War conflict would occur most frequently and violently along cultural (often civilizational, e.g., Western, Islamic, Sinic, Hindu, etc.) instead of ideological lines, as under the Cold War and the bulk of the 20th century. This cultural organization better describes the world than the classical notion of variegated sovereign states.

Related Topics:
1993 - International relations - Foreign Affairs - Geopolitics - Francis Fukuyama - The End of History - 1996 - Simon and Schuster - West - Islam - Sinic - Hindu - Cold War - 20th century - State

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He surmised that to understand conflict in our age and in the future, cultural rifts must be understood, and culture (instead of the state) must be accepted as the locus of war. Thus, he warned that Western nations may lose their predominance if they fail to recognize the irreconciliable nature of this brewing tension.

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Critics (see Le Monde diplomatique articles) call Clash of Civilizations the theoretical basis to legitimize aggression by the US-led West against China and the world of Islam. However, Huntington has also argued that this shift in geopolitical structure requires the West to strengthen itself internally, abandoning democratic universalism and incessant interventionism.

Related Topics:
Le Monde diplomatique - China

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It is interesting to compare Huntington, his theory on civilization, and his influence on policy makers in the U.S. Administration and the Pentagon, with A.J. Toynbee and his theory, which relied heavily on religion and was criticised similarly.

Related Topics:
A.J. Toynbee - Religion

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