Samuel P. Huntington, the American political scientist who has died at 81, was relatively unknown outside public policy circles until the publication of "The Clash of Civilizations?", a 1993 essay that examined whether future conflicts would be based on divisions among cultures rather than nation states.

By 1996, Huntington had dropped the question mark and expanded his thesis into a best-selling book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. It was among attempts by US theorists to examine the post-cold war world after the defeat of communism.