Samuel Huntington, political scientist, dies at 81

Saw this last night on the 'ould France 24. He was most famous for writing The Clash of Civilizations? an essay (late expanded into a book) which predicted that after the Cold war, conflicts would be along cultural, religious and linguistic boundaries.

The essay drew an awful lot of criticism, as it lumped the countries of the world into s few 'civilisations'. It left very little room for the enormous differences within such civilisations.

Certain predictions he made have rung true however. I read the book a few years ago, it was written in '96. He predicts strife in Ukraine and Ossetia, trouble within the EU with Greece, increased strife between the Islamic world and, well, everone else, and the rise of China as a world power. Of course, you might argue that a lot of this was very predictable.

905 wrote:

Samuel Huntington, political scientist, dies at 81

Saw this last night on the 'ould France 24. He was most famous for writing The Clash of Civilizations? an essay (late expanded into a book) which predicted that after the Cold war, conflicts would be along cultural, religious and linguistic boundaries.

The essay drew an awful lot of criticism, as it lumped the countries of the world into s few 'civilisations'. It left very little room for the enormous differences within such civilisations.

Certain predictions he made have rung true however. I read the book a few years ago, it was written in '96. He predicts strife in Ukraine and Ossetia, trouble within the EU with Greece, increased strife between the Islamic world and, well, everone else, and the rise of China as a world power. Of course, you might argue that a lot of this was very predictable.

That would depend on when he wrote it. I remember having an argument in the mid 1990s with an Irish TD who had just back from China and who insisted that it was not developing economically and, would never be a major industrial power. The fact that everything I had bought that day was made in China could not pursuade him.