Huntington, Samuel P(hillips) 1927-
HUNTINGTON, Samuel P(hillips) 1927-
PERSONAL: Born April 18, 1927, in New York, NY; son of Richard Thomas (a publisher of hotel trade journals) and Dorothy Sanborn (a writer; maiden name, Phillips) Huntington; married Nancy Alice Arkelyan, September 8, 1957; children: Timothy Mayo, Nicholas Phillips. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1946; University of Chicago, M.A., 1948; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1951.
ADDRESSES: Home—52 Brimmer St., Boston, MA 02108. Office—Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA 02138-3016.
CAREER: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, instructor, 1950-53, assistant professor, 1953-58, professor of government, 1962-67, Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government, 1967-81, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, 1981-82, Eaton Professor of Science of Government, 1982, Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor, 1995, chair of department, 1967-69, 1970-71, and 1982-95, Center for International Affairs, research associate, 1958-63, faculty member, 1964, executive committee, 1966, associate director, 1973-78, acting director, 1975-76, director, 1978-89, Academy of International and Area Studies, chair, 1996; Columbia University, New York, NY, research associate, 1958-63, Institute of War and Peace Studies, associate assistant director, 1958-59, associate director, 1959-62, associate professor of government, 1959-62, Ford Research Professor, 1960-61, 1962. Brookings Institution, research associate in defense policy, 1952-53; Social Science Research Council, faculty research fellow, 1954-57; All Souls College, Oxford University, visiting fellow, 1973; Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, fellow, 1983-84; John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, director, 1989-2000; International Institute for Strategic Studies, senior research associate, 1990; visiting lecturer at University of Michigan, University of California, Dartmouth College, Ohio State University, Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University), Army War College, Air War College, National War College, and Industrial College of the Armed Forces. Consultant to Institute for Defense Analysis, 1961, Hudson Institute, 1962, U.S. Air Force Academy, 1962-64, and Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1963-68. Service to the U.S. government includes: Council on Vietnamese Studies in Southeast Asia, chair of Development Advisory Group, 1966-69; Presidential Task Force on International Development, member, 1969-70; International Development Foundation, trustee, 1969-76; Commission on U.S.-Latin American Relations, member, 1974-75; National Security Council, coordinator of security planning, 1977-78; Commission on Integrated Long Term Strategy, member, 1986-88; Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, 1995-97. Military service: U.S. Army, 1946-47.
MEMBER: International Political Science Association (council, 1973-75), International Institute of Strategic Studies, American Political Science Association (member of council, 1969-71; vice president, 1984-85; president-elect, 1985-86; president, 1986-87), Council on Foreign Relations.
AWARDS, HONORS: Silver Pen Award, Journal Fund, 1960; fellow, Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 1969-70; Guggenheim fellow, 1972-73; Grawemayer World Order award, 1992; fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
WRITINGS:
The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1957.
The Common Defense: Strategic Programs in National Politics, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1961.
Instability at the Non-Strategic Level of Conflict, Institute for Defense Analyses, Special Studies Group (Washington, DC), 1961.
(With Zbigniew Brzezinski) Political Power: USA/USSR, Viking (New York, NY), 1964.
Political Order in Changing Societies, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1968.
(With Michel Crozier and Joji Watanuki) The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1975.
(With others) Can Cultures Communicate?: An AEI Round Table Held on September 23, 1976, and Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C., The Institute (Washington, DC), 1975.
(With J. M. Nelson) No Easy Choice: Political Participation in Developing Countries, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1976.
(With Andrew J. Goodpaster) Civil-Military Relations, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (Washington, DC), 1977.
American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, Belknap Press (Cambridge, MA), 1981.
The Dilemma of American Ideals and Institutions in Foreign Policy, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (Washington, DC), 1981.
(With Albert Carnesale and Paul Doty) Living with Nuclear Weapons, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.
American Military Strategy, Institute of International Studies, University of California (Berkeley, CA), 1986.
The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1991.
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1996.
EDITOR
Changing Patterns of Military Politics, Free Press of Glencoe (New York, NY), 1962.
(With Clement H. Moore) Authoritarian Politics in Modern Society: The Dynamics of Established One-Party Systems, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1970.
The Strategic Imperative: New Policies for American Security, Ballinger (Cambridge, MA), 1982.
(With Robert J. Art and Vincent Davis) Reorganizing America's Defense: Leadership in War and Peace, Pergamon-Brassey's (Washington, DC), 1985.
(With Joseph S. Nye, Jr.) Global Dilemmas, University Presses of America (Lanham, MD), 1985.
(With Myron Weiner) Understanding Political Development: An Analytic Study, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1987.
(With Lawrence E. Harrison) Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2000.
(With Peter L. Berger) Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.
Contributor of more than fifty articles to scholarly journals and periodicals including Foreign Policy,Daedalus, World Politics, Foreign Affairs, Bangkok Post, and American Political Science Review. Coeditor, Foreign Policy, 1970-77.
ADAPTATIONS: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order was adapted for audiocassette, read by Paul Boehmer, Books on Tape, 2002.
SIDELIGHTS: Samuel P. Huntington is a political scientist who has held distinguished university positions as well as a number of noteworthy government posts. A scholar in global politics, Huntington has chaired Harvard's government department, coordinated activities of the United State's National Security Council, and, among other roles, directed the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, a noted think-tank. "Huntington has made many important contributions to the fields of international relations and comparative politics. He has called to our attention the distinction between quantitative and qualitative arms races, advanced our understanding of modernization and institutionalization processes in the Third World, and contributed to our knowledge of 'transnationalism in world politics' and of the effect of democratization," summarized Richard Rosecrance in American Political Science Review, adding: "One important measure of creativity in the field is the number of new and important variables a scholar introduces. Huntington's . . . work leaps this hurdle with room to spare." Among his most novel ideas are those elaborated on in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, and related to the central topic discussed in Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, a collection of essays he coedited.
Among the other publications Huntington has edited or authored is The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, released in 1991. The Third Wave is a post-hoc analysis of more than thirty countries who became democratic political entities during the 1970s and 1980s, the third wave—the first two waves being from 1828 to 1926 and from 1943 to 1962. Not intending to provide a predictive theory, Huntington identifies five changes which set the stage for the change to occur, the processes bringing the nondemocratic bodies into democratic systems, and also factors related to the stabilization and consolidation of democracies. In World Politics, Ian Shapiro wrote: "Huntington's The Third Wave is . . . stunningly well informed. Essential reading for anyone who is interested in the future of democracy." "Huntington is a scholar of the first rank, and this study is, like so many of his others, a significant contribution," concluded Scott London in online Scott London review.
Huntington became more predictive in his political analysis for a 1993 Foreign Affairs article, "The Clash of Civilizations." The article "was a brilliantly provocative piece," noted Bill Powell in Newsweek, and it generated great scholarly discussion. Riding this momentum, Huntington expanded his thoughts, addressing more implications of his thesis, and wrote The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, published in 1996. Essentially, Huntington's theory, which breaks from more traditional international relations theories, is that the world is moving away from nation-centered unity and conflicts into a set of about eight civilizations grouped primarily along cultural lines. Currently the West—North America, Europe, Western Europe—is dominant, but according to Huntington their relative power is declining, with the Chinese/Sinic/Confucian and the Islamic civilizations contenders to take the lead. The remaining civilizations classified by Huntington are Africa, Latin America, a Japanese/Buddhist civilization centered on Japan, a Hindu civilization centered on India, and an orthodox civilization centered on Russia. When perceiving emerging world politics through this lens, asserts Huntington, one of the issues that becomes important for U.S. foreign policy is to "promote the unity of the West," he told David Gergen in a NewsHour interview. "Which means not just in military and economic terms but . . . also in moral terms and in commitment to western values." According to Huntington, political actions in this post-Cold War, culturally-competitive world environment should be mindful that Western values are not necessary held by, nor are they desired by, other civilizations.
Although Huntington's ideas in The Clash of Civilizations, formulated from both political and historical analysis, are most often recognized as well-informed, intelligent, and significant, they are also cited as flawed, typically criticized for being too narrowly focused on his civilizations thesis. As such, some reviewers have stated that he has not given enough weight to certain factors, such as influence of nationalism, and not fully described other issues, such as the specific motivators for individual states. In the "bold and brilliant book," described National Review contributor Robin Harris, "the author's single-minded rigor in employing the widest variety of data to make his case and his forceful sweep of assertion carry the reader along almost too easily....Forallits virtuosity, Huntington's analysis does not . . . ultimately pass muster." While Edward W. Said's New Statesman analysis of the book described Huntington's central thesis as "a gimmick," Christian Stracke stated in Journal of International Affairs: "Huntington offers a coherent case, backed by a wealth of well-researched empirical information, for overturning the dominant, primarily American notion that the end of the Cold War means the final victory for the West's capitalism and universalist ideals." Of the arguments presented in The Clash of Civilizations, Robert Jervis remarked in Political Science Quarterly: "His critics are not likely to be persuaded, but I cannot imagine a reader coming away without rethinking many accepted ideas."
Huntington's belief in the determining effect that culture has in shaping society is also found in Culture Matters. Huntington worked with Lawrence E. Harrison to edit the 2000 publication, which contains twenty-two essays originating from a 1999 symposium sponsored by the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, an organization Huntington once chaired. As the title suggests, the volume centers its discussions around the belief that different cultural attributes have varying effects on the economic development of a region. Within the volume's seven sections are essays that discuss culture and economic development in general, as well as more specific writing that addresses culture and gender, American minorities, anthropological debates, the recent Asian economic crisis, and change within a culture. Critics such as Thomas R. DeGregori, reviewing for Journal of Economic Issues, and Quadrant contributor Eric Jones felt the contents of Culture Matters did not quantify exactly how certain cultural variables affect economics. DeGregori generally agreed with the books statements, but was left wanting for "an operational understanding of how culture mattered." Jones, who found many faults with the collection, maintained "culture matters less and in different ways from many of the claims advanced in this volume." In contrast, Peter L. Berger's Society review praised Culture Matters as "an important book" filled with papers "of excellent quality." Though Berger believed the volume omitted important discussion of the role of religion and whether all or just an influential subset of a population need to hold a certain value for it to be economically significant, the critic concluded: "Harrison and Huntington have brought out a book that should be required reading for anyone concerned with economic and political developments in the contemporary world. And the reading will not only be instructive but pleasurable."
In a recent article in the Atlantic, Robert D. Kaplan surveyed Huntington's career and writings. "The Soldier and the State," Kaplan observed, "initiated what has become a familiar pattern in Huntington's long career: his work has not immediately earned brilliant reviews and academic awards but, rather, has garnered mixed reviews and harsh denunciations that ultimately yield to widespread if grudging acceptance. Even Huntington's enemies unwittingly define and worry about the world in ways and in phrases that originated with Huntington." Noting that Huntington's opinions have "proved to be as prescient as they have been controversial," Kaplan concluded his extended critique of the man and his work with this assertion: "If American political science leaves any lasting intellectual monument, the work of Samuel Huntington will be one of its pillars. A passage in the conclusion of American Politics has always seemed to me to capture the essence of Huntington's enduring judgment and political sensibility: 'Critics say that America is a lie because its reality falls so far short of its ideals. They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope.'"
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
American Historical Review, October, 1982, review of American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony, p. 1148.
American Journal of Sociology, May, 1983, review of American Politics, p. 1296; September, 1997, Edward A. Tiryakian, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 475.
American Political Science Review, September, 1988, Ronald H. Chilcote, review of Understanding Political Development: An Analytic Study, p. 1025; December, 1992, Herbert Kitschelt, review of The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, p. 1028; December, 1998, Richard Rosecrance, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 978.
American Spectator, December, 1981, review of American Politics, p. 14; July, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 12.
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November, 1983, George H. Quester, review of The Strategic Imperative: New Policies for American Security, p. 196; March, 1998, William E. Naff, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 198.
Arab Studies Quarterly, winter, 1998, Zerougui Adbel Kader, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 89.
Atlantic, December, 2001, Robert D. Kaplan, "Looking the World in the Eye," extended review of Huntington's career and writings.
Booklist, October 1, 1996, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 318.
Book World, December 1, 1996, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 4; December 8, 1996, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 7.
Business Week, November 25, 1996, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 16.
Choice, January, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 685; June, 1988, review of The Common Defense: Strategic Programs in National Politics, p. 1519; March, 1992, R. J. Terchek, review of The Third Wave, p. 1154.
Christian Century, March 24, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 347.
Commentary, March, 1997, Richard Pipes, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 62.
Commonweal, March 12, 1982, William B. Hixson, Jr., review of American Politics, pp. 150-51.
Contemporary Sociology, November, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 691.
Daedalus, winter, 1981, review of American Politics, p. 40.
Far Eastern Economic Review, February 6, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 39; May 1, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 36.
Foreign Affairs, winter, 1982, review of The Strategic Imperative, p. 462; February, 1992, review of The Third Wave, p. 190; September, 1997, reviews of Political Order in Changing Societies and The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations, pp. 215, 220; January-February, 2001, Robert J. Samuelson, review of Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, p. 205.
Foreign Policy, fall, 1994, Richard E. Rubenstein and Jarle Crocker, "Challenging Huntington," p. 113; spring, 1997, Stephen M. Walt, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 176.
Guardian (London, England), November 23, 1996, "Professor Samuel Huntington," p. 23.
Harvard Law Review, May, 1982, Rogers M. Smith, review of American Politics, pp. 1691-1702.
International Affairs, July, 1997, Felipe Fernandez, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 547.
Journal of American History, September, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 417.
Journal of American Studies, August, 1983, review of American Politics, p. 280.
Journal of Economic Issues, December, 2001, Thomas R. DeGregori, review of Culture Matters, p. 1009.
Journal of International Affairs, summer, 1997, Christian Stracke, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 302.
Journal of Modern History, June, 1998, Walter A. McDougall, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 436.
Journal of Peace Research, February, 1994, Nils Petter Gleditsch, review of The Third Wave, p. 119; January, 1998, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 127.
Journal of Politics, November, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 1135; February, 1998, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 304.
Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, summer, 1998, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 215.
Journal of World History, spring, 200, Robert Marks, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 101.
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1981, review of American Politics, p. 1057; September 1, 1996, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 1295.
Library Journal, November 1, 1981, review of American Politics, p. 2143; October 1, 1996, David Ettinger, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 106; August, 1999, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 56; April 15, 2000, Danna Bell-Rusell, review of Culture Matters, p. 113.
London Review of Books, April 24, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 3; November 1, 2001, Bruce Robbins, review of Culture Matters, pp. 34-35.
Military Review, September, 1994, review of The Third Wave, p. 82.
Nation, November 28, 1981, Alan Wolfe, review of American Politics, p. 583.
National Review, November 13, 1981, Joseph Sobran, review of American Politics, p. 1352; October 28, 1996, Robin Harris, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 69.
New Perspectives Quarterly, summer, 1993, "The Islamic-Confucian Connection," p. 19; winter, 2002, "Osama bin Laden Has Given Common Identity Back to the West," interview with Huntington, pp. 5-8.
New Republic, November 11, 1981, Samuel H. Beer, review of American Politics, p. 30.
New Statesman, April 4, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 42; October 15, 2001, Edward W. Said, analysis of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 20.
Newsweek, December 9, 1996, Bill Powell, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 63.
New York Review of Books, January 9, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 18.
New York Times, November 6, 1996, Richard Bernstein, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. B2(N); October 20, 2001, Michael Steinberger, "A Head-on Collision of Alien Cultures?," p. A11(N).
New York Times Book Review, November 15, 1981, Andrew Hacker, review of American Politics, p. 3; June 26, 1983, review of Living with Nuclear Weapons, p. 3; September 11, 1983, Andrew Hacker, review of American Politics, p. 55; December 1, 1996, Michael Ignatieff, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 13.
New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, winter, 1987, review of Reorganizing America's Defense: Leadership in War and Peace, pp. 523-24.
New Zealand International Review, May-June, 1997, John McKinnon, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 22A.
Observer (London), February 23, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 16.
Perspective, June, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 98.
Perspectives on Political Science, spring, 1992, review of The Third Wave, p. 100.
Policy Review, June-July, 2002, Stanley Kurtz, "The Future of 'History': Francis Fukuyama vs. Samuel P. Huntington," pp. 43-58.
Political Science Quarterly, fall, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 505; summer, 1997, Robert Jervis, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 307.
Political Science Review, fall, 1983, review of American Politics, p. 69.
Political Studies, March, 1994, Graeme Duncan, review of The Third Wave, p. 174.
Publishers Weekly, September 9, 1996, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 69.
Quadrant, May, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 75; September, 2000, Eric Jones, review of Culture Matters, p. 78.
Religious Studies Review, July, 1983, review of American Politics, p. 253.
Review of Politics, January, 1983, review of American Politics, p. 149; spring, 1993, Philippe C. Schmitter, review of The Third Wave, p. 348.
San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1997, Abbas Milani, "Western Civilization Takes on the World," p. 10.
School Library Media Quarterly, summer, 1993, review of The Third Wave, p. 267.
Social Science Quarterly, March, 1998, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 250.
Society, November, 2000, Peter L. Berger, review of Culture Matters, p. 103.
Spectator, April 12, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 35.
Time, May 22, 2000, Lance Morrow, review of Culture Matters, p. 26.
Times Literary Supplement, April 11, 1997, Patrick Glynn, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 10.
Village Voice, November 11, 1981, review of American Politics, p. 38.
Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 10.
Wall Street Journal, November 7, 1996, Francis Fukuyama, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. A20(E).
Whole Earth Review, summer, 1997, review of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p. 39.
Wilson Quarterly, spring, 1982, review of American Politics, p. 155.
World Politics, October, 1993, Ian Shapiro, review of The Third Wave, p. 121.
ONLINE
NewsHour,http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ (January 9, 1997), David Gergen discussion with Huntington, transcript "Many World Orders."
Scott London,http://www.scottlondon.com/ (April 19, 2002), review of The Third Wave.*