Samuel Huntington Dies

Just read in Spiegel Online: Samuel Huntington, best known for his 1993 article "The Clash of Civilizations" died today at age 81. I teach his thesis in my sophomore Western Civilization course, alongside Francis Fukuyama. It's likely I'll be including it in GSS as well.

Huntington argues that modernization is ultimately unrelated to westernization, and that civilizations are essentially differetiated by religion and language. In the wake of 11/1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall and the symbolic end of the Cold War), when neo-conservatives began to trumpet the triumph of American-style free-market capitalism as historically inevitable, Huntington's thesis struck many as pessimistic and even reactionary. The terrorist attacks of 9/11, however, seemed to validate his world-view.

Here's an interesting visual guide to Huntington's understanding of future alignments between the major world civilizations. The thicker the line, the greater the friction between cultures.