Samuel P. Huntington, a longtime Harvard Professor

Huntington was an influential and provocative writer on important issues of the modern world. He published "The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order" His rationale appeared particularly germane after September 11, 2001.

Expanding on a provocative 1993 Foreign Affairs article, Dr.Huntington argued in the book that the principal causes of future wars would not be nation-state rivalries over trade,territory or ideology. Instead, he wrote,wars would erupt over differences in religion,history,language and tradition. He asserted that Cold War antagonisms were relatively minor compared with the continuing and deeply confictual relation between Islam and Christianity.

My comment: The best way to counteract such possible threat from varied cultures is not to fight in the war but to study religion,philosophy,language and tradition of other nations particularly the Middle East and Asia. If Americans know American language and tradition only,Americans would never understand other religions,philosophy and languages. Such bias would cause misunderstanding at best or conflict at worst in the 21st century. It is high time for Americans to study other languages and cultures for friendly communications with humankind in the name of globalization and humanity. I have reason to believe that our new President Obama would advocate such strategy to change American education to emphasize international studies for the best interest of USA and for the survival of humankind on earth.

Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao,an octogenarian learner of international studies of economics since early 1940s for global peace and economic development.

Tuesday,December 30, 2008 at 12.12 p.m.