Francis Fukuyama (born October 27, 1952 in Chicago) is an influential American political economist and author. He is currently Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Fukuyama is best known as the author of the controversial book The End of History and the Last Man, in which he argues that the progression of human history as a struggle between ideologies is largely at an end, with the world settling on liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War. He has written a number of other books, among them and Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. In the latter, he qualifies his original "end of history" thesis, arguing that since biotechnology increasingly allows humans to control their own evolution, it may allow humans to become fundamentally unequal, and thus spell the end of liberal democracy as a workable system.
Fukuyama is sometimes criticised as being a bio-Luddite due to his critiques of the political ramifications of transhumanism, though to others Fukuyama is considered a bioconservative due to his cautious support for GMO technologies.
Politically, Fukuyama is considered neoconservative. He was active in the Project for the New American Century thinktank starting in 1997, and signed the organization's letter recommending Bill Clinton overthrow the then President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein [1]; however, he did not approve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq as it was executed, and called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of Defense [2]. As of 2004, he serves in the Bush administration as a member of the President's Council on Bioethics.
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Last updated: 10-18-2005 19:24:54
