Samuel Phillips Huntington
Author, The Clash of Civilisations
Samuel Phillips Huntington
(Source)
NameSamuel Phillips Huntington
BiographyAn author, Samuel Phillips Huntington received aclaim for his essay The Clash of Civilisations? In this essay, he observed that the 19th Century was one of Empire, and the 20th Century (particularly the Cold War) a struggle of ideologies, and predicted that with the end of the Cold War, the world risked division on 'civilisational' lines. He delineating several civilisations such as Western, Hindu and Islamic, and predicted that if divisions were allowed to deepen, international affairs may be increasingly characterised by clashes between these civilisations. He expanded on his hypothesis in a book, The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order, describing in detail ways in which civilisations interact - for example, the way that States such as Germany and Russia interacted on behalf of their civilisational clients, Croatia and Serbia, in the wars in the Balkans.
It is perhaps indicative of the passions aroused by Huntington's thesis that one of the more prominent critiques employed an ad hominem attack in its very title (Said, The Clash of Ignorance). However, Huntington has been at pains to point out that he is not advocating a clash of civilisations, but merely identifying it as a 'possible future' in the hope that it might be averted. It must be said that events since The Clash of Civilisations was written, particularly the words and actions of Usama bin Laden and his allies, have confirmed Huntington's argument.
Webpages
  • Samuel Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order - BrothersJudd's bibliography of web articles, interviews and other resources related to the book.
    • Publications
  • The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order. Chapter 1 Chapter 12.
  • The Crisis of Democracy.
  • Condensation of Huntington's argument in The Crisis of Democracy.
  • Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations
    • Interviews
  • Newshour: Many World Orders, January 1997.
    • Articles
  • The Clash of Civilisations? - full text of the original article from Foreign Affairs Summer 1993:
    Mirrors: Lander University. // Alamut.com. // Bint Jbeil.
  • Washington Post: The Clash - Joel Achenbach pits the Huntington Thesis against the Fukuyama Thesis. December 2001.
  • The Nation: The Clash of Ignorance, Edward W Said, October 2001.
    Mirror of Said's article "The Clash of Ignorance".
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