Svět očima Samuela P. Huntingtona

Samuel P. Hungington was one of the most influential American political scientists and intellectuals of the latter half of the 20th century primarily thanks to his interdisciplinary approach to research, his ability to pinpoint current problems within society and his discriminating sense of reality. When he died in 2008 on Christmas Eve, he left behind quite extensive and thematically varied work which undoubtedly deserves deeper reflection. Born in New York, Huntington began his academic career with an analysis of military-civilian relationships in American society, and then gradually moved on to the areas of political development and modernization, and the crisis in democracy. He developed the theory of transitions to democracy focusing on the third wave of democratization which also included the transitions of post-communist Central-European countries. His reflections also concerned the continuous erosion of American identity. He became broadly known through his theory of the clash of civilizations in which he articulately challenged the western world’s prospects of global assertion of liberal democracy as well as the view that economic globalization will ultimately lead to a global cultural unification. In the Czech Republic, Huntington has been widely criticized, often misinterpreted, but unfortunately little read or studied. His later works in particular have met with a controversial reception, being wrongly understood as representative samples of his world views. The research legacy of this long-term director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University is undoubtedly much more ample and this is what the presented monograph, which should serve as a basic orientation tool in Huntington’s copious world, is trying to assert.