Is Democracy the Source of Moral Authority?

This week’s episode is a live recording of Wisdom of Crowds, where we celebrated a very special occasion: the publication of Shadi Hamid’s new book, The Case for American Power. The book is a soul-searching study about American power as a force for good in the world, and it combines memoir and foreign policy analysis. Shadi’s thesis is that if we want to make the world “more just and more moral, more democratic and more respectful of human rights,” then backing the United States is both the “last best hope and the least-bad option.”

Joining Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic is special guest Matt Duss, former foreign policy advisor to Bernie Sanders, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, and co-host of the Undiplomatic Podcast. “I am certainly not against the idea of American power,” says Matt. But his question is: “Which America?” Duss is less optimistic that US power can be put to good use because, he says, we are currently having a national debate about “what is the nature of the American project.” It’s unclear how that debate will end.

Nevertheless, Shadi argues, American democracy, however imperfect, is still superior to the regimes in the other global hegemons, Russia and China. We should not fear our own home — oikophobia is a real issue, Shadi says, using the term for “fear of one’s home,” the opposite of xenophobia. Duss partially agrees, but says that being a democracy does not necessarily imbue American foreign policy with moral authority. “International law does that.”

The topic of international law prompts Damir to steer the conversation towards the topic of Gaza. Does American collaboration with Israeli war crimes disprove Shadi’s thesis? Or does it paradoxically strengthen the argument that the world needs morally-guided American power? At this point, Shadi utters one of the best lines of the night: “To be seen as hypocritical is the cost of trying to being better than you actually are.”

We are making this episode completely free for all subscribers, including the Q and A section, which covers topics like: hypocrisy in foreign policy; why working with China is preferable to the US for some nations; how Gaza will change the Democratic Party; the crisis in the MAGA coalition; and more!

Required Reading and Listening:

* Shadi Hamid, The Case for American Power (Amazon).

* Shadi, “A Genocide is Happening in Gaza. We Should Say So” (Washington Post).

* Shadi, “Everyone says the Libya intervention was a failure. They’re wrong.” (Vox).

* Our 2024 podcast with Matt Duss (WoC).

* Rod Dreher, “What I Saw and Heard in Washington” (Substack).

* Roger Scruton, “Oikophobia” (Journal of Education).

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