The classic study of post-Cold War international relations, now even more relevant in the post-September 11 world. A benchmark for informed speculation on those always fascinating questions: Just where are we in history? What hidden hand is controlling our destiny? . . . A searching reflection on our global state.

Samuel P. Huntington was the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University, where he was also the director of the John M. Olin Institute for Stategic Studies and the chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He was the director of security planning for the National Security Council in the Carter administration, the founder and coeditor of Foreign Policy, and the president of the American Political Science Association.