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March 19, 2020|Bear Braumoeller, Liberal World Order, peace, Steven Pinker, War

Have We Seen the End of War?

by Andrew A. Szarejko|

The guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) transits the Arabian Gulf, Feb. 22, 2020 (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Griffin Kersting/Released).
Braumoeller dispatches the unconvincing argument that, as Pinker claims, the spread of “Renaissance humanism and empathy” is driving a decline in war.

November 22, 2019|Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola, Vietnam, War

America’s Heart of Darkness

by Titus Techera|

Still image of Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. Image: Omni Zoetrope/United Artists.
In Coppola’s telling, the American way of war tends toward either incompetence or brutality.

March 15, 2019|Homecoming, Julia Roberts, memory, trauma, War

Homecoming and the Trauma of War

by Scott Beauchamp|

Julia Roberts and Stephan James in Homecoming (Amazon Studios).
An Amazon show that offers a glimpse into the nature of our recent wars—shadowy, ambiguous, and fraught with tension—and asks: What should we remember?

November 2, 2018|great powers, Matthew Kroenig, nuclear deterrence, peace, United States, War

The Long Nuclear Peace

by Brian A. Smith|

Still image from Operation Crossroads, U.S. nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, July 25, 1946 (Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com).
Prudence sometimes dictates that we contemplate the unthinkable, if only to keep it at bay.

May 4, 2015|Dale C. Copeland, International Relations, Machiavelli, Thucydides, War

Trade Expectations and the Outbreak of Wars

by William Anthony Hay|

Why countries go to war remains a perennial question for international relations. Military, ideological, and geopolitical challenges to a nation’s security draw great attention, but its economic interests play an important part that demands greater study. To that end, Dale C. Copeland has written Economic Interdependence and War, a carefully argued contribution to the professional literature on international relations. While controlling resources and gaining territory have long been factors in driving conflict, few wars have been fought ostensibly for market share. Copeland argues that commercial factors have been far more important to the outbreak of war than either realists or liberals…

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April 28, 2014|Christianity, Cold War, Edmund Burke, Historicism, John Locke, Leo Strauss, Progressivism, War

Critiquing Leo Strauss from the Right

by Grant Havers|

This next episode of Liberty Law Talk is a discussion with author and professor Grant Havers on his conservative critique of Leo Strauss. Many conservatives hold Strauss in high regard as a thinker who shaped their intellectual commitments. Havers discusses the question: what's so conservative about Strauss' philosophy? Havers' recent book Leo Strauss and Anglo-American Democracy: A Conservative Critique contends that Strauss was a liberal Cold War warrior who most wanted to defend the foundational principles of British and American democracy. Going to the heart of Strauss' philosophical principles and his grounding of modern constitutional liberty in classical Greek political thought,…

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January 28, 2014|1648 Treaty of Westphalia, Benghazi, Diplomacy, Foreign Aid, Foreign Policy, War

Diplomatic Insecurity, a Barometer of Policy Failure

by Angelo M. Codevilla|

Important as it is to fix responsibility for failure to protect America’s diplomatic contingent in Benghazi Libya, which led to the death of four Americans on September 11 2012, the effort to do so detracts from a question that goes to the heart of U.S. foreign policy: Why is it that so many U.S. embassies and outposts need protection by U.S. military forces, and even in civilized countries have had to wrap themselves in ever-heavier blankets of security? What has U.S. foreign policy done to raise the level of hate which millions of foreigners bear for us, while at the same time decreasing fear of American retribution? Addressing such questions requires re-assessing the fundamentals of U.S. foreign policy.

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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