Search

Begin New Search Publishing Institution The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University

1. A More Complete Realism: Grand Strategy in a New Key

Author:
Claes G. Ryn
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
The field of international relations centers on the problem of war and peace. For many decades nuclear weapons have given great urgency to dealing wisely with the subject. Countries having sometimes very tense relations with each other possess these weapons. Nevertheless, because they have not been used since World War II, the threat of nuclear war has appeared distant. We tell ourselves that no sane, rational leader would resort to these weapons. Self-preservation and enlightened self-interest forbid their use. And yet history is full of evidence that human beings often act not prudently but out of the intense passion of the moment—out of hatred, fury, wild abandon, sheer desperation, or boundless ambition. Nuclear weapons are but one of the reasons why theories of international relations should include as complete and subtle an understanding as possible of what might induce prudence and restraint. Realism is certainly needed, but the belief that human beings are rational actors pursuing self-interest and that states behave in a quasi-mechanical manner needs to be revised and supplemented. Because of the potentially disastrous consequences of flawed assumptions in international relations, simplified theories of human nature are out of place. Even more than other fields, international relations needs in-depth reflection on subjects that some may consider too subtle, esoteric, or “philosophical.”
Topic:
International Relations, International Cooperation, Grand Strategy, and Realism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Statesmanship for Political Economy in the National Interest

Author:
Nathan Hitchens
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
As we emerge unevenly from the ravages of a global pandemic, the new world upon us is summoning statesmanship for political economy in the national interest. 2020 was apocalyptic in the true sense of the word. The depth of our dependence on Chinese manufactures for everything from face masks, respirators, ventilators, to basic pharmaceuticals was revelatory. This emergency unveiled the gaunt figure of American industry. Yet, our industrial thinning-out was there for all to see during America’s decades-long, neoliberal diet of globalized supply chains, offshored manufacturing, and international trade based on economic comparative advantage and specialization. An optimist might object to this dire picture and point to Operation Warp Speed, the massive effort of industrial policy in pharmaceuticals and drug development, which produced vaccine formulae in record time by relying on a World War II model of public-private sector mobilization and on powers of the federal government in the 1950 Defense Production Act.
Topic:
Security, Political Economy, Governance, and Leadership
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

3. Women’s Liberation in Soviet, Sino, and American State Building: Theory and Practice

Author:
Emily B. Finley
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Women’s liberation is a concept that is almost always found at the heart of revolutionary thinking. Plato, devising the ideal state in which all perform work according to inborn ability and hold goods in common according to the dictates of justice, very soon discovers that marriage and the nuclear family are hindrances to the perfectly just republic. Plato’s plan for abolishing the traditional family pertains to the guardian class and exemplifies a deep suspicion of the family as fostering attitudes detrimental to building the just state. Plato was the opposite of an egalitarian, but the view of the family as a harbinger of “private morality” would in the modern period characterize radically egalitarian philosophies that envision an all-dominating public consciousness and a corresponding collective activism. Family life, especially for women, is not naturally suited to this political objective. The construction of Plato’s perfectly just city entails the assurance that women worthy of being “guardians” can outsource childcare and can freely produce guardian-worthy children.
Topic:
Women, Feminism, State Building, Gender, and Liberation
Political Geography:
China, Europe, Asia, Soviet Union, North America, and United States of America

4. Professing Literature: The Example of Austin Warren

Author:
Aaron Urbanczyk
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Literary studies in America are in a late stage of decay. For nearly a century English departments have been a revolving door of influences, most of which have not been salutary. In rapid succession historical and philological scholarship of the early twentieth century gave way to the New Criticism, the critical influences of Marx and Freud, postmodernism (deconstruction), New Historicism, and the currently dominant hermeneutics of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. University English departments today are divided along these various ideological lines, with the result that literary studies have morphed into a heterogeneous set of subdisciplines with the word “studies” appended. Here I intend no polemic against or diagnosis of the chaotic state of literature as a discipline; rather, I propose considering this state of affairs from the point of view of its practitioners. The professoriate is defined by those who profess. Borrowing Gerald Graff’s phrase, one might ask who stands out as a model of “professing literature” amidst this disciplinary chaos?
Topic:
Education, Literature, Academia, and Discipline
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. A German Tocqueville? The Unrecognized Importance of Francis Lieber’s Letters to a Gentleman in Germany, or The Stranger in America

Author:
Joshua Waechter
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
“No German I know could have analyzed public life as I have done, having had the advantage of a practical citizen’s life for many years, in a vast republic.”1 Francis Lieber, the stocky, thick-accented German to whom this bold statement belonged, was basking in the positive reception of his recently published Manual of Political Ethics. He considered himself—along with his friend Alexis de Tocqueville—as one of a select few gifted with special insight into a nation’s political life. Joseph Story praised Lieber as even greater than Tocqueville, saying “‘You know ten times as much as he does of the actual workings of our system and of its true theory.’”2 Samuel Taylor agreed and, in an article comparing both men side by side, argued that, while Tocqueville was the better writer, Lieber surpassed him “as a political philosopher, comprehensive in his knowledge of the literatures of history and of politics, and of the practices of government; and profound in understanding the guaranties of liberty, and the institutions and arrangements of governments for their protection.”3 Given this high praise, one might well ask whether Tocqueville was a “French Lieber.” However, given Tocqueville’s modern fame, perhaps it is better to ask whether Lieber should be understood as a kind of “German Tocqueville,” especially regarding his observations about the fledgling United States. In order to assess the significance of Lieber’s understanding of American political institutions for his own political thought, we need to begin with his 1834 travel journal about a trip to Niagara Falls.
Topic:
Intelligence, Politics, Leadership, and Institutions
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

6. The Great Illusion: Foreign Policy Advocacy and the Problem of Knowledge

Author:
Claes G. Ryn
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
An odd-sounding title? Bewildering, no doubt, to foreign-policy scholars and activists used to the nomenclature and intellectual emphases of their fields and subfields. But life defies academic and professional boundaries, as does the subject of this article. The following inter-disciplinary examination of a dubious but common notion of persuasion could not be more germane to the study of foreign policy, and yet the problem in question is not being addressed by those most directly concerned. This article will, after introducing the topic of advocacy—specifically, in an area of foreign affairs—give reasons why a widely shared understanding of knowledge and persuasion needs to be reconsidered. If we use measures of quantity and financial expenditure, a very large and important role is being played in American public life by intellectual activism intended to influence public debate and government policy. The vast array of advocacy organizations in the nation’s capital is merely the tip of an iceberg. Enormous sums are spent in what may be called the persuasion or advocacy business. Funders act on the assumption that target audiences can be affected through position papers, policy studies, public events, op-eds, and similar agitation.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Governance, and Advocacy
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

7. Church of Woke: Next American Religion?

Author:
Michael Vlahos
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
What does it mean to be woke? First and foremost, “woke” is a religious signal that you have heard the Good News and Seen the Light. Awakening means both witnessing revealed truth and experiencing spiritual transformation. Today this has taken the form of a collective enunciation: Of a new national church, reformed and transformed, to replace the original American sect, which is wicked and corrupted. In simple, practical terms, the Church of Woke is pledged to the destruction of Racism, Patriarchy, and Heteronormativity. The original national religion—often called American Exceptionalism—and the Church of Woke are locked in a victory-or-death struggle. To understand this, two points are essential. First: America is a religion. American life and politics function in a religious milieu.[1] That should not surprise. In 1967, American sociologist Robert Bellah declared a national “civil religion”[2]—yet “civil religion” is a pleonasm. Greek “politics” and Roman “civil” both refer to the city, the national community of Antiquity. Hence today, in our national city, all citizens are part of an American religious congregation. Second, the full faith conversion of an empire is a transformation. Our distant past records just such a shift. 1700 years ago an entire civilization—the sacred world of the Greco-Roman Mundus[3]—was overthrown and replaced by something new. This transformation was the work of three generations, from 313-380. The first generation converted a Roman emperor who declared tolerance toward Christians. The second marched steadily toward the persecution of “pagans.” In the third generation there was a counter-coup by the apostate emperor Julian. He failed. What followed was the total proscription of all pagans (or Hellénikos). Likewise, the Church of Woke has began its Long March to transform American life in the mid-1960s. Like Christianity, it has burrowed deeply into elite society and the institutions of state power. Now we are locked in a culminating phase. The third generation of Woke—true to Late Roman antecedents—must cast down the Pantheon of American Exceptionalism, of Founders and Heroes, establishing a new divine order that will wash away America’s sins[4] of Racism, Patriarchy, and Heteronormativity. What follows puts Late Antiquity and Today’s world side-by-side. The reason to do this is compelling. Simply, we are facing a potential civilizational discontinuity.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, Racism, Heteronormativity, and Patriarchy
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

8. “The Same Procedure as Every Year”: U.S. Counterterrorism Policy since 9/11

Author:
Dorle Hellmuth
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
The quote above refers to the recurring dialogue between Miss Sophie, a sophisticated English lady, and her butler James in a British comedy sketch from 1963. Miss Sophie every year celebrates her birthday by holding a festive dinner for her friends, Mr. Pomeroy, Mr. Winterbottom, Sir Toby, and Admiral von Schneider. Unfortunately, Miss Sophie has long outlived all her friends, so she is the only one seated at the table; her guests are represented by her butler James, who ends up waiting on the imaginary guests and consuming all of their alcoholic beverages while toasting Miss Sophie. All four courses of the dinner follow the same pattern: Miss Sophie will choose the beverage that best fits with the course, followed by James asking, “The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?” and Miss Sophie answering, “The same procedure as every year, James!” The exchange might also be used to describe U.S. counter-terrorism strategy since the 9/11 attacks. Even though Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump could not be more different in terms of their political outlooks, personalities, and leadership styles, there has been a remarkable continuity in their approaches. Since 9/11, U.S. counter-terrorism policies have focused on externalizing the terrorism threat, designed to prevent the enemy from coming close to the U.S. homeland, by means of border security and surveillance measures, and tie them up offshore, either on far away battlefields, at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, or in other overseas prisons.
Topic:
Security, Counter-terrorism, Leadership, 9/11, and War on Terror
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

9. Was Irving Babbitt an Educational Counterrevolutionist?

Author:
Eric Adler
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Admirers of the work of Irving Babbitt (1865-1933), the chief figure associated with an informal school of literary and social criticism called New Humanism, have long recognized that many of Babbitt’s critics have failed to take seriously—or even to understand—his ideas. According to the political philosopher Claes Ryn, for example, even during Babbitt’s lifetime “reckless distortions of his ideas gained wide currency.” The caustic debates surrounding New Humanism that took place in the early decades of the twentieth century, it seems, encouraged critics to contribute tendentious and careless appraisals of Babbitt’s work. Such partisan and misleading critiques continue to influence assessments of Babbitt today. The one hundredth anniversary of Rousseau and Romanticism, arguably the author’s quintessential monograph, provides an excellent opportunity to revisit assumptions about Babbitt’s ideas. This article will make the case that some scholars of American higher education have proved especially egregious distorters of Babbitt’s thought.
Topic:
Education, Intelligence, Literature, and Higher Education
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

10. American Statesmanship: Contrasting Views of Leadership

Author:
Michael P. Federici
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
As George Washington contemplated attending the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he worried that if the meeting failed it would stain his reputation and jeopardize his place as father of the American republic. Given the support for and failures of the Articles of Confederation, Washington had good reason to worry that either the convention would not produce an alternative to the Articles or that it would produce one that was as ineffective and short-lived. However much Washington may have been motivated by vanity, he was predisposed to expect that failure was a common outcome of politics, in some cases because providence or fate controlled the outcome, not human agency. In instances when and to the degree that outcomes depended on human agency, Washington knew that human beings were prone to vices that were contrary to the higher ends of politics. Thus, he was not inclined to overestimate the possibilities of politics even though he had reasons to believe that providence was on his side
Topic:
Security, Development, Governance, and Leadership
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

11. History, Social Science, and the ‘Literary Conscience’

Author:
Richard Jordan
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
As social science has grown more sophisticated, so has its awareness of its own methodological shortcomings. Many of the leading journals publish extensively (sometimes, exclusively) on new devices to circumvent these difficulties. At least some social scientists, though, seem aware that they will never devise mathematical tools capable of overcoming certain ceilings on their knowledge. There is an increasing demand for other ways to ask and answer questions. As the social sciences knock vainly against these ceilings—and as they dwindle into increasing policy irrelevance—more humanistic scholars recommend a return to history. This remedy, though, is incomplete. The old saw that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” has hidden history’s most difficult problem: its lessons are not obvious. History is too contingent, and its cases too few, for the states-man to derive general lessons with any confidence. The statesman must learn from it, but what he must learn is not often clear.
Topic:
Intelligence, History, Literature, and Social Science
Political Geography:
Global Focus

12. The Past in the Present: Ancient Patterns in the Emergent Middle East

Author:
Andrew Gilmour
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
In all spheres of human life decision making can be more or less well informed and prudent. Sometimes ignorance or the passion of the moment yields disastrous results. Sometimes wise, circumspect decisions avert catastrophe. In politics and especially in foreign policy, the consequences of either good or bad leadership are potentially far-reaching. Those charged with making big decisions need to be as prepared as possible to understand the circumstances in which they are operating and to estimate the likely outcome of their actions. The effects of ignorance, superficiality, and rashness can be devastating. What best prepares foreign policy decision makers to carry out their duties responsibly is a topic of great importance. Here the purpose is to draw attention to one of the requirements for sound decision-making, that of understanding the extent to which the past, sometimes the ancient past, influences the present. A leader ignorant of that which came before may instead turn to a superficial or accustomed theory or set of assumptions, perhaps derived from a cherished ideology.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Governance, Leadership, and Ideology
Political Geography:
Middle East

13. Beyond International Relations Theory

Author:
William Smith
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Theories of American foreign policy are somewhat arbitrarily divided into two opposing camps: idealism and realism. Idealism involves constructing a world we hope would exist, such as freedom and democracy sweeping the globe, and then recommending foreign policy prescriptions based on this imaginary world. While realism is more firmly grounded in the world as it actually exists, it can suffer from a form of nihilism, sometimes positing that foreign policy is exclusively found in the domain of power politics and does not involve morality. The great Harvard professor Irving Babbitt refused to concede that these two lenses were the only way to view world affairs. As a fierce critic of the Romantic movement, Babbitt was particularly alarmed by the tendency of Western leaders to offer policies that were based on chimeras conjured up in their idealistic imaginations. Babbitt refused to accept an amoral realism, however, because he believed that sound statesmanship was determined by the character of statesmen and that the choices they made would not simply be matters of prudence but also a matter of character. Power may be the operative principle…
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Hegemony, Leadership, and Ideology
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

14. The Rise of the Admistrative State and Decline of Constitutional Morality

Author:
William Gangi
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Keep a highlighter and pen handy. I don’t recall the last time I used the former so frequently or made so many comments in a book’s margins. Each draft of this review has had a different emphasis. The conclusion I reached was this: the reader will have an incredible number of issues to mull over, and this review simply cannot discuss every worthwhile topic. Thus, while not a casual read, this volume certainly is a rewarding one. The book commences with a basic political insight: a constitution originating in one country may not be transplanted to another country and be expected to work in the same manner as it had in the country of origin. This book demonstrates the many reasons why that is so, and more particularly, how current legislative and executive practices have undermined the framers’ understanding of the rule of law. In sum, our nation’s governance has become increasingly arbitrary under a system the authors aptly describe as “quasi-law.”
Topic:
Governance, Constitution, State Building, Morality, and Administration
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

15. Constitutional Morality and the Emerging Social Imaginary of the Information Revolution

Author:
Kevin Lee
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
A recent report of the professional association for electrical engineers, IEEE (IEEE 2019), calls attention to the importance of technology for politics. It describes the aims of engineering the new legal information technology this way: “Ultimately, our goal should be eudiamonia, a practice elucidated by Aristotle that defines human well-being, both at the individual and collective level, as the highest virtue for a society” (IEEE 2019, 2). The association with the Aristotelian tradition of virtue ethics may at first seem surprising since the consumerist values of Silicon Valley typically run towards anti-teleological perspectives. But, as the report notes, the information and computing technologies (ICT) that are being developed are “specifically designed to reduce the necessity for human intervention in our day-to-day lives.” And for this reason, it is “raising concerns about their impact on individuals and societies” (IEEE, 3).
Topic:
Information Age, Constitution, Morality, and Social Order
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. Legal Conservatism and the Progressive Blame Game

Author:
Jesse Merriam
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
In a recent essay in The Independent Review, I praised Bruce Frohnen and George Carey’s Constitutional Morality as “one of the best, if not the best, constitutional law books of the last decade.” As I explained in that review essay, Constitutional Morality is distinct from many other excellent pieces of constitutional law scholarship in both its ideological breadth and analytical depth. By “ideological breadth,” I am referring to how, as compared to other works in constitutional law and theory, Constitutional Morality resists partisan tropes and examines how both conservatives and liberals alike have derogated their constitutional duties. The book thereby exposes the deficiencies of the bipartisan consensus supporting our constitutional order. Constitutional Morality’s publication in 2016 is thus particularly apt, as the presidential election that year represents a reconsideration of the commitments and coalitions underlying our national political parties and institutions
Topic:
Legal Theory, Conservatism, Ideology, Progressivism, Legal Sector, and Partisanship
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

17. Reflections on Judicial Duty

Author:
Patricia M. Lines
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
In this timely study Bruce Frohnen and George Carey uncover serious lapses in the operation of our federal government—lapses which constitute a depressing failure to be true to the Constitution. The authors charge all three branches of the federal government with neglect of their constitutional duties and, all too often, exceeding their constitutional authority. Congress has delegated law-making responsibilities to administrative agencies and has not exercised oversight of the agencies it has created. Presidents have usurped lawmaking functions through executive orders, and the Supreme Court has failed to check the reach of the legislative and executive branches. I applaud the authors’ efforts to call attention to these serious problems. While I agree with the Frohnen and Carey concerning the Court’s failure to check the excesses of the executive and legislative branches, especially during the New Deal, I respectfully disagree that the Supreme Court has exceeded its judicial power. To make their case, our authors focus on just one highly controversial and unpopular case, Roe v. Wade. I will argue that the Court in this matter has remained within its constitutional boundaries, following common law and its own self-imposed rules.
Topic:
Governance, Legal Theory, Judiciary, Legal Sector, and Abortion
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

18. A Response to Critics

Author:
Bruce P. Frohnen
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
My thanks to the participants in this symposium. I know that my co-author, George Carey, would be as gratified as I am at the serious consideration given, here, to Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law. At first I was puzzled by William Gangi’s summation of our book as one that addresses the adage that “a constitution originating in one country may not be transplanted to another country and be expected to work in the same manner as it had in the country of origin.” The book includes some comparative analysis of constitutions to show their reliance on the underlying culture for their success and the importance of the fit between tradition and text. Still, it focuses on the American Constitution, not on the application of any country’s constitution to other countries. Then again, as Gangi notes, in a more fundamental sense our book is about the interaction between the written constitution of the United States and the unwritten constitution of institutions, beliefs, and practices that shaped the American people, the American culture, and the constitutional morality that until fairly recently held officials to their public duties. This is a particular instance of the universal problem of “fit” between constitution and culture.
Topic:
Governance, Constitution, Legal Theory, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

19. The Chartered Rights of Americans: A Kirkian Case for the Incorporation of First Amendment Rights

Author:
Luke C. Sheahan
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Traditionalist conservatives have often expressed hostility to the Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence, perceiving it as an attempt to accomplish social change undertaken by the court’s current justices while disregarding the original meaning of the Bill of Rights.1 According to this account, rather than recognizing the provisions of the First Amendment to be part of a larger constitutional project that upholds social order and traditional institutions, the court interprets First Amendment clauses so as to undermine the basic structural logic of the Constitution itself. An advocate of this position is the figure many consider to be the godfather of American intellectual conservatism, Russell Kirk.
Topic:
Law, Domestic Politics, and Conservatism
Political Geography:
United States

20. What Psychology Might Learn from Traditional Christianity

Author:
Kari Konkola
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Sin used to be among Christianity’s most important concepts. This is understandable. The New Testament says God sent His only son, Christ, to liberate fallen humans from the suffering caused by Adam’s original sin. The importance of overcoming sins is emphasized by the Bible’s oft-repeated warnings about God’s sometimes ferociously punishing sinners. In spite of the central role of sin in the Bible, worry about the cardinal sins—pride, envy, anger, greed, and lechery—has largely disappeared among modern Christians.1 The reaction of most of today’s Christians can be summarized by the expression “good riddance.” The “let’s talk about something else” attitude toward sin has become the prevailing paradigm even among theologians.
Topic:
Religion, International Relations Theory, and Psychology
Political Geography:
Britain and United States