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. He is a professor at Harvard University.

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 is often contrasted to the view expressed by Francis Fukuyama in "The End of History." Huntington later expanded that article into a full-length book, published in 1996, entitled The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The article and the book articulates his theory of a multi-civilizational world headed for conflict. In his writings, he is critical of both Western and non-Western behavior, accusing both of at times being hypocritical and civilization- centric. He also warns that Western nations may lose their predominance if they fail to recognize the nature of this brewing tension. See "Clash of Civilizations" for more discussion.

Critics (see Le Monde diplomatique articles) call Clash of Civilizations a covert way to legitimize aggression by the US-led West against the Third World, in order to keep the latter "in check", that is, preventing their economic development.

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.

Huntington graduated from Yale University and received his doctorate from Harvard University, where he is Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor. In the 1960s, he became a prominent scholar upon publishing Political Order in Changing Societies, a work that challenged the conventional view of modernisation theorists that economic and social progress would produce stable democracies in recently decolonized countries. As an advisor to Lyndon Johnson, and in an influential 1968 article, he justified heavy bombardment of the countryside of South Vietnam as a means of driving Viet Cong supporters to the cities. He also was co-author of The Crisis of Democracy: On the Governability of Democracies, a report issued by the Trilateral Commission in 1976. During 1977 and 1978 he was the White House Co-ordinator of Security Planning for the National Security Council.

Other works

The latest book by Huntington, Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity, was released in May 2004. The subject is the meaning of American national identity and the possible threat posed to it by large-scale Latino immigration, which Huntington warns could "divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages". Like The Clash of Civilizations, this book has also stirred controversy, and some have accused Huntington of xenophobia.

He is also the author of Political Order in Changing Societies.