An appetite for empirical data and a willingness to challenge received wisdom
Among the activities associated with moving house is the trawl through possessions you haven’t seriously looked at in years. Books are a prime example. In the process, I reacquainted myself with American social scientist Christopher Jencks. Born in 1936, Jencks began his career working at the liberal magazine The New Republic and the left-leaning Institute…
International politics expert Andy Knight is working on a new book about the changing face of global governance and the transition to a new world order. Tentatively titled International Organization Today, the book will examine how the world has evolved from a simple system of international governance, driven mainly by the United Nations, to its current state of multilateral…
Think of them as a form of therapy, a way of easing back to everyday life while still experiencing the atmospherics of the political arena
If you’re suffering withdrawal pangs from the wind down of the American election, here are three political dramas to assist your transition. Think of them as a form of therapy, a way of easing back to everyday life while still experiencing the atmospherics of the political arena. Subject matter aside, the films have two things…
The methods of a former KGB operative remain applicable in the modern era, leading to disinformation and outright lies
“I cannot but wonder why are people pushing for socialism and communism?” an elderly friend wrote on Facebook. “Are they that misinformed and believing it?” If we concede the answer is “Yes,” the next question is “Why?” The late Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB operative with the RIA Novosti press agency, had some answers. One…
The ties that bind aren’t what they used to be – at least for some of us. For others, they are increasingly intense
I’m old enough to remember when nationalism was viewed as a good thing. And I’m not just referring to my Irish childhood. In the Canada of 40 to 50 years ago, many high-profile progressives self-described as nationalists. People like former finance minister Walter Gordon, journalist Peter C. Newman and the luminaries gathered around the Committee…
The former Conservative prime minister has advice for us on Trump, economics, immigration and more
Stephen Harper is back. After flying under the radar for the last three years, Canada’s former prime minister has returned to the arena, albeit not as an active politician. Instead, he’s a commentator with several messages to impart, all of which are packaged in his new book Right Here Right Now. Not everyone is impressed.…
In the Trump world, money is the key metric and the truth is relative. Can the midterm elections change anything?
Now that I’ve read A Higher Loyalty (James Comey, 2018), War on Peace (Ronan Farrow, 2018), Fire and Fury (Michael Wolff, 2018) and Fear (Bob Woodward, 2018), I feel like I really know the ultimate protagonist. The portrayals of U.S. President Donald Trump are remarkably consistent. He is: vain, compulsively in-the-moment, intellectually lazy, a misogynist…
The inauspicious heir to the White House had planned to play poker the night Roosevelt died. Instead, he became president
Vice-President Harry Truman’s life changed on Thursday, April 12, 1945. That was the day Franklin D. Roosevelt died and Truman became the 33rd president of the United States. To virtually everyone, including himself, Truman was an inauspicious heir. Journalist A.J. Baime’s The Accidental President nicely captures the general bemusement. Born in small-town Missouri in 1884, there…
Conservative Arthur Brooks argues people can head off a cultural and political implosion by celebrating the perspective of the other
Various commentators have concluded that America is in the throes of its second civil war. Dennis Prager, a conservative radio host, has concluded that the political left and right share no common value system (such as respect for freedom of speech), therefore there can be no collaborative coming together over core beliefs. He argues that…
Rather than a positive endorsement of their world view, Republican electoral success comes down to a simple rejection of the Democrats
The U.S. Republicans are at a crossroads. And no, it’s not down to the havoc – real and imagined – being wreaked by President Donald Trump. Or at least it’s not mostly down to that. The problem is more fundamental than one man. At the level of its political and intellectual leadership, the party isn’t…
Among the activities associated with moving house is the trawl through possessions you haven’t seriously looked at in years. Books are a prime example. In the process, I reacquainted myself with American social scientist Christopher Jencks. Born in 1936, Jencks began his career working at the liberal magazine The New Republic and the left-leaning Institute…
