Political Theory

In “Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War,” Samuel Moyn forces readers to ask whether America’s shift toward “humane” war has a dark side.

Reinhold Niebuhr differs from twenty-first-century foreign policy realists in that he viewed an accurate and explicit portrait of human nature as the crucial starting point for any theory of international relations.

In The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? Michael Sandel eloquently argues a sobering idea: America can pursue meritocracy or the common good, but not both.

“The Good American” is the story of how Robert Gersony, a high school dropout, affected governmental actions to reduce human misery and advance human rights. Because of his success in promoting humanitarian values, Kaplan calls him the US government’s “greatest humanitarian.”

Toward the end of World War II, Americans contemplated the possibility of “world government” to prevent another catastrophe, especially after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan.

Some idealists may blame the selfishness of wealthy governments and their citizens for COVAX’s failure, but the organizers should have considered mankind’s selfish nature when designing the program.

This week the editors discuss Mark Tooley’s conversation with Eric Nelson about his book “The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God.” They also cover a 1946 article about Americans’ post-World War II anxieties and Eric Patterson’s editorial about Memorial Day.

“The Unbroken Thread” by Sohrab Ahmari shows us that our human capacities and loves are not and cannot be strictly contained within the horizons of philosophic liberalism.

Today we’re covering three scintillating pieces from Providence this week, one on the Israel and Hamas conflict, another on a new book about the Iraq War, and thirdly, one by yours truly on the New Whiggery.