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 the full subscriber-only episode, 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?
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)