Samuel Phillips Huntington was born in 1927, in New York, USA. He graduated from Yale University when he was 18 years old, received his PhD from Harvard University and began teaching at the university at the age of 23.

Samuel P. Huntington is specialized in defense and international affairs. Since 1950 he has been a member of Harvard's Department of Government. He left to work at Columbia University in 1959, but returned in 1962. He has served as chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and of the Government Department. In 1977-1978, he worked for the U.S. government at the White House as coordinator of security planning for the National Security Council.

Huntington had his breakthrough as a scholar in the 1960's. He has issued several publications that are widely considered as classical works. Among his principal works are: - 1968: 'Political Order in Changing Societies.' The book challenged the conventional view of modernization theorists that economic and social progress would bring about stable democracies in recently decolonized countries. In the book he suggests that developing countries are not always likely to create liberal-democratic institutions.

 

- 1991: 'The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century.' In this study Huntington analyzes the transition of a range of countries from nondemocratic to democratic political systems during the 1970's and 1980's. By these casestudies he infers a theoretical framework for understanding democratic transitions.

 

- 1993: 'The Clash of Civilizations?' In this controversial article he predicted conflicts between the world's major cultures in the post-Cold War1 era. According to Huntington, the world will be divided into seven or eight civilizations based on Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Conflicts will initially occur between culturally diverse civilizations, and not between nation states. Huntington expanded on the thoughts of the often-cited article and in 1996 he published the book entitled, 'The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order.' Widespread reactions to and the impact of the idea of clashing civilizations are dealt with under "Involvement in Arab-West/Intercultural/Interfaith Relations."

 

" 2004: 'Who are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity.' In this book Huntington states that massive Latino immigration is a possible threat to the American national identity. He warns that the country could be divided into two peoples, two cultures and two languages.

 

Huntington is a controversial scholar and opposition to his work and thoughts will be dealt with below under the headline "Involvement in Arab-West/Intercultural/Interfaith Relations."

 

Not known

 

The political affiliation of Samuel P. Huntington unknown. However, he has been involved in American politics working for the U.S. government. Refer to "Education, Career and Personal Background."

 

Samuel P. Huntington is a scholar of influence in the intercultural field. His work has influenced the discourse in foreign policy on intercultural and interfaith affairs.

A Google search on the exact phrase "Clash of Civilizations" results in over 1.7 million hits, which implies the influence of Huntington's work. Another indication of his impact is a United Nations initiative called 'The Alliance of Civilizations,' which seems to be a counteract designed to prevent the "clash."

 

The al-Qā^cidah attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 have widely been explained in the context of 'Clash of Civilizations' with Huntington predicting the course of events a decade in advance. What American president George W. Bush has since termed the war on terror is also often defined in terms of the West against Islam, and a fundamental clash between these two civilizations.

Critics have argued that with 'Clash of Civilizations,' that Huntington has provided legitimacy for the United States to pursue an aggressive foreign policy against China and the world of Islam. Others have argued that Huntington has only described the dynamics of post-Cold War politics as they were.

 

Arab-West Report contains several articles from the Arabic media on Huntington and his thoughts. There is a tendency to present 'Clash of Civilizations' as a pure attack on Islam. A prominent Egyptian writer, Muḥammad ^cImārah for example, commented in Egypt's second largest newspaper, al-Akhbār, saying that Samuel Huntington said Islam is the Green Peril that replaced the Red Peril and the Communist Evil Empire. [2005, 7, art. 30]

 

A Western critics who has been exposed in the Arabic media is Richard W. Bulliet, a professor at Columbia University, U.S. He confronted the ideas of Huntington through the book 'The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization,' which indicated the possibility that different civilizations may have the capability to coexist. [AWR 2005, 45, art. 39]

 

Coexistence is, according to another American professor, James Turner Johnson, an aspect that plays a central role in Huntington's theory, but to which any attention is rarely paid. James Turner Johnson, professor of religion, has, in the Arab media, pointed out that those who focus on the clash in his opinion neglect that Huntington encourages identifying the common elements between civilizations, a step that could help coexistence. [AWR 2005, 39, week 18]

 

Another aspect of Huntington's thoughts that seems to be neglected in the Arab media is his critical view of the West. However, such thoughts do exist. On page 310 of 'The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,' Huntington writes:

 

"In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous...Imperialism is the necessary logical consequence of universalism."

 

A scholar of liberal universality frequently compared Huntington to the American philosopher and political economist Francis Fukuyama. In Western research his book, 'The End of History and the Last Man,' is often mentioned in contrast to Huntington's 'The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order.' Fukuyama views the end of The Cold War as the end of history in the sense that human history has been a struggle between ideologies, and that with the end of the Cold War, this struggle was won by liberalism. Fukuyama said in the book, published in 1992, that in the aftermath of the Cold War the world is settling with liberal democracy. While Fukuyama declares the eventual triumph of political and economic liberalism as the end of history, Huntington belives that the history continues. He agrees that political ideology will no longer be the essence of struggle, but a new struggle will appear. A struggle between civilizations.

The Egyptian writer, Muḥammad ^cImārah, in his presentation of Huntington emphasizes that he is Jewish [2005, 7, art. 30], implying that Huntington has a bias against the Islamic world. It is uncertain whether Huntington is Jewish or not. Huntington himself speaks of Jewish friends in a comment from a book review (http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040901faresponse83515/samuel-p-huntingto....), and the name Huntington is affiliated with Jewish organizations. Samuel P. Huntington's religious affiliation has neither been verified nor falsified.