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Philosophy

Commentary

The Delusion of an Arab World

The toxic remnants of a negationalist Arab nationalism.

Headfirst into the Libyan Quagmire

No strategy for dispatching Qaddafi. No knowledge of the rebels. No plan for reconstruction. Welcome to the Libyan intervention.

Out of School

One of the admirable things about raspberries is that different sorts seem to get along pretty well with each other.

Essays

All Gandhi's Children

With the most diverse society in the world, India can serve as a model to the West in its struggles to reconcile liberal democracy with Islam.

Finding Forster

The antiliberal defenders of civilization—resisting the Ground Zero mosque—are wrong. Liberalism still offers the best hope for combating extremism.

Conservative Nation

Declarations of conservatism's demise after the 2008 election were greatly exaggerated. As the opposition, American conservatives are in their element—can they draw upon their intellectual tradition to solve what ails America?

The Struggle for Democracy

The promotion of democracy is the centerpiece of Bush's foreign policy, but the president has yet to define democracy.

What Hobbes Really Said

Life in the state of nature may be "nasty, brutish and short," but states are not people, and Hobbes is not the ultra-realist he is made out to be.

The Rocky Shoals of International Law

International law is rapidly evolving a direction thaat threatens American sovereignty. With careful attention, however, the United States can mold the law to its advantage.

Blogs

Hungary and the Reversibility of Liberal Democracy

Hungary is steadily backing away from its democratic principles. Is the United States next?

Who Writes the Nation's Moral Code?

As much as pundits might hope otherwise, morality is not black and white. It's time to broaden the debate.

The Proprietary View of Peace

Run-of-the-mill government officials have probably done more for peace than any sign holder in Lafayette Park.

Books & Reviews

Lest Ye Be Judged

Enraged bloggers and grandstanding politicians alike denounce the Koran as a glorified terrorist manifesto. Philip Jenkins’s new tome challenges this simplistic logic, analyzing the Bible’s equally—and often shockingly—bloodthirsty passages.

Introducing Mr. Trevor-Roper

For the great historian Hugh Trevor-Roper—whose poison pen spared no ego and whose toxic overconfidence relegated him to a perpetual almost-ran—refusing to become the false prophet of a grand new theory of history was his greatest triumph.

Mr. Brooks's Miracle Elixir

The Social Animal is an instruction manual for politicians, the chief virtue of which is that it is practically useless. Faced with geopolitical and economic upheaval, the New York Times columnist offers a reassuring refuge from reality.

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February 13, 2012