American theorist John Mearsheimer has been making the rounds claiming that the West bears the majority of the responsibility (this month in The Economist) or fault (in 2014 in Foreign Affairs) for the war in Ukraine. It is perhaps odd for a proponent of a Realist international relations theory—which
At the end of February, thousands of high school students gathered in streets and squares in 40 cities around Italy. They held signs that read “It could have been me” or “You shouldn’t die of school”. The protests were sparked by the death of a fellow student during a
“Realism and Restraint” as a school of thought is a new player on the US foreign policy stage—though it has older intellectual precursors. In part a response to the perceived interventionist excesses of the aughts, this new school brings a voice of caution to what is traditionally a hawkish
It has been five years since Liberal Currents launched with seven essays at the ready. Many more have been published since; as of this writing we expect to hit our 300th essay within six or seven months. After spending our first three years as an all-volunteer effort, we launched a
The policy needle of the state and the conscience of the public don’t budge in any direction if people don’t collaborate to educate others and affect political change. Creating new intellectual and political alliances, and enforcing the connections between old ones, are crucial steps toward spreading ideas, establishing
The nations of the world are remarkably united in opposition to the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in late February 2022. Russian aggression has (for the most part) been understood as unprovoked and unjust. But even in the world’s unified call for peace, respect for persons and national
On February 22, 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to refer for prosecution parents of transgender minors who are receiving gender-affirming medical care. He concurred with an opinion, released a few days prior, by the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that giving minors
A popular saying, often used when discussing the uncertainties of the past, is that “history is written by winners.” The implication is that the powerful create our narratives of the past, and the point of view of the various “losers” in history is unknowable. This truism is not, however, particularly
It is very important that I am banned from weightlifting. Very important that I never compete in mixed martial arts, very important that I never win a swimming competition, very important that I never win a footrace. I am a trans woman, you see, and we are too strong, too
In opposing US imperialism, progressives often emphasize US power. The logic here is straightforward; if the United States has great power to affect international events, it also has great culpability. The problem, though, is that the focus on US actions and US capacity can lead to the conclusion that the
Discourse studies is an interdisciplinary method used to unpack how we use language to organize and express ideas in the most convincing possible way, even up to the point of misleading our audience. To illustrate how useful Discourse Studies can be for getting a deeper understanding of the messages around
…The tradition of associational socialism can contribute to the deepening of the pluralism that is constitutive of liberal democracy. But this requires a rejection of the atomistic liberal vision of an individual that could exist with her rights and interests prior to and independently of her inscription in a community.