Leaving aside the rightness or wrongness of any particular policy, it seems clear that there is a deep division between the worlds of policy making and the worlds of moral reflection.

Morality and interests unite in our duty to destroy ISIS.

This is a war for civilization

There are two ways to think about the November 13 Paris attacks. The first is that ISIS has taken a strategy to hit Western countries in order to pull them out of the game, to dissuade them from further airstrikes in greater Syria. The second way to understand this is as a strategic miscalculation that will raise Western resolve. Let’s explore both strategies and what is then likely to happen.

“liberté, égalité, fraternité”

After the deadly assault on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which saw jihadists execute writers, artists and janitors in retaliation for the paper’s publication of crude cartoons mocking Muhammad, the Paris-based publication is facing regular death threats. Freedom of speech is under threat.

The following is based on remarks delivered at the Providence launch party, Friday, November 6th. The recorded event is available on our Facebook page. For those who prefer to read, in the days ahead, we will post additional transcriptions. Watch for them!

Providence aims to rediscover Protestant tradition and to unearth some of those resources as they relate to international affairs and the vocation of the state and how we would counsel America as a great power to perform on the world stage.

For soldiers, the burden of having to do that which they believe to be morally evil is devastating. And according to the classic Just War tradition, it needn’t be.