Democracy: How Direct?
Views from the Founding Era and the Polling Era
Posted: Tuesday, October 1, 2002
For more than two hundred years Americans have been debating how direct a democracy they want. Advocates of a powerful role for direct voting -- in which public opinion dictates public policy -- fear elitism and the usurpation of democratic rule by politicians, bureaucrats, and the rich. Advocates of representative voting fear that emotion and factional interest will undermine stability and justice. Through representation, they believe, cool-headed deliberation within institutions will prevail over popular passion.  [Full Story]

The Influence of Faith
Religious Groups & U.S. Foreign Policy
Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2001
Realists have long argued that the international system must be based on hard calculations of power and interest. But in recent years, religion’s role on the international scene has grown. The Influence of Faith examines the American reaction to the persecution of Christians and Jews overseas, as well as the role of faith-based groups such as missionary and relief organizations in the formulation and implementation of U.S. policy. The Influence of Faith considers these timely issues from diverse points of view, offering broad historical analysis as well as concrete examples taken from current affairs.  [Full Story]

Secularism, Spirituality, and the Future of American Jewry
Posted: Monday, February 1, 1999
Is the future of Judaism in America promising or is there reason for great pessimism? Dozens of scholars participated in an Ethics and Public Policy Center conference on September 6, 1997 to explore this question and we have distilled this fascinating discussion. Essays by Charles S. Liebman, Jonathan Woocher, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Clifford Librach, Dennis Prager, Robert M. Seltzer, David Singer, Neil Gillman, Jack Wertheimer, Barry Shrage, Adam Mintz, and Peter S. Knobel.  [Full Story]

Close Calls
Intervention, Terrorism, Missile Defense, and 'Just War' Today
Posted: Monday, June 1, 1998
Just war reasoning attempts to discriminate between defensible and indefensible uses of force. It does not accept “state interest” as an unbeatable trump; it requires that moral distinctions be drawn. Here, in twenty highly readable essays, scholars and expert practitioners draw such distinctions as they ponder some of the hardest questions facing policymakers today. Commentators on the just war tradition itself and on various forms of intervention in other countries provide a wealth of insights into when the use of force is justifiable.   [Full Story]

Honor Among Nations
Intangible Interests and Foreign Policy
Posted: Wednesday, April 1, 1998
Can “intangible” interests such as national honor, morale, and reputation be deemed “vital”? Can they be considered an essential part of a policy that seeks to defend traditional security interests? Donald Kagan begins the discussion with a panoramic view of honor, interest, and the nation-state. William C. Wohlforth looks at Russia’s foreign policy since 1600 and its definition of national interests. Daniel J. Mahoney examines the foreign policy of De Gaulle’s France. And Karl Walling looks into how the early American statesmen—especially Alexander Hamilton—balanced interest and honor. Respondents are Peter W. Rodman, Charles H. Fairbanks, Jr., Francis Fukuyama, and Robert Kagan.  [Full Story]

Faith or Fear
How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America
Posted: Sunday, June 1, 1997
In the midst of the greatest religious expansion in American history, Jews are a shrinking minority. Intermarriage is up, synagogue attendance is down, and Jewish education is flagging. Jewish leaders spend less time instructing the young in religious traditions than in promoting liberal causes and attacking conservative Christians. But as Elliott Abrams contends in this tightly argued, insightful polemic, it is not the Christian Right that most threatens Jews today, but rather their abandonment of Judaism.  [Full Story]