According to one Harvard Business School Professor, a civil war is a real possibility following the 2008 election.

“We might possibly be headed for a real crash here,” said D. Quinn Mills, Weatherhead Jr. Professor of Business Administration.

To find out whether Harvard students agree with his hypothesis, Mills is running a two-week online discussion-based symposium this month that invites Harvard students to speak out about the possibility of a civil war following the next presidential election.

With the U.S. map politically polarized — northern and western states blue and southern ones red, with little bipartisan activity — Mills said he is 15-20 percent confident that America could face another Civil War if the 2008 election is as closely contested as the past two.

“I looked at the map of the last two elections and it looks a whole lot like the map of the U.S. just prior to the Civil War,” he said.