Apr 16, 2022
This week, Shadi and Damir debate whether the war in Ukraine is breathing new life into the liberal idea. It seemed like liberalism might stage a comeback, but Putin-adjacent rightwing populists are still going strong in France and Hungary. Shadi insists he's a liberal who's critical of liberalism, which pushes Damir to question what exactly that means in practice. When is too much illiberalism too much? Also: Damir wonders whether Prohibition got a bad rap.
In Part 2 of their discussion, available here, Shadi and Damir go deeper into how the challenges to liberalism play out in foreign policy, and debate whether democracies are less cruel during war. Is America a moral power? Does that make us better?
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Required Reading
- "Is There Such Thing as the Common Good?" by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
- "Why I Am Not A Liberal" by Liam Bright (Sooty Empiric)
- "A Country of Their Own" by Francis Fukuyama (Foreign Policy)
- "Preparing for Defeat" by Francis Fukuyama (American Purpose)
- "Can Liberalism Thrive Without a Wolf at the Door?" by Ross Douthat (New York Times)
- "The Enemies of Liberalism Are Showing Us What It Really Means" by Ezra Klein (New York Times)