Free Republic

FOR the decade since its founding by the neoconservative thinker Irving Kristol, The National Interest has been a central forum for the most influential conservative foreign policy thinkers of all stripes to hash out their differences. It launched ideas that entered the public policy vernacular, like "the end of history," "the West and the rest," and "geo-economics," and for the last six months it has played host to a closely watched intramural conservative debate over the wisdom of the war in Iraq. Now, however, a philosophical disagreement within its editorial board has put its future in turmoil. On Friday, 10...

The "Neo-Con" Phenomenon .... day dreams of grandeur--without understanding of how human societies ... actually function. . . . we had never heard--or at least never paid enough attention to have noted--the term "neo-con," before the inauguration of George W. Bush in January, 2001. We understood that the President, who called himself a "compassionate conservative," was not really Conservative on many issues. But we took him at his word . . . Our first notice of the "neo-con" phenomenon came . . . after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks . . . The first impression was of a...

The Tragedy of Multiculturalism 7/31/91 Irving Kristol The Wall Street Journal It is difficult, and even dangerous, to talk candidly about "multiculturalism" these days. Such candor is bound to provoke accusations of "insensitivity" at least, "racism" at worst. Even some of the sharpest criticisms of multiculturalism are content to limit themselves to demonstrating how "illiberal" it is, how it violates traditional ideas about the substance of liberal education, and how it represents a deplorable deviation in the way our young Americans, so heterogeneous in their origins, are to be educated to live together. This criticism is certainly valid and welcome....

Ronald Reagan was the most popular American president since FDR. He was also the most hated president since FDR. The reason he was hated was that his policies were often trans-partisan in bewildering ways. The reason he was popular was that his policies worked. This fact is still a puzzle to most American intellectuals, academics, and journalists, who are more comfortable talking about the personal sources of his popularity than about his policies. It is generally conceded — even by Senator Kennedy! — that Reagan's Cold War militancy helped bring about the collapse of Communist Russia. But that's a deceptive...

Editor's note: A look back at President Reagan, from the February 5, 2001 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.Ronald Reagan, 1911 - 2004 December 7, 1988As Ronald Reagan prepares to leave the White House, he also leaves those of us who study American politics and American history with an interesting question: What is it that has made him so successful a president--indeed so successful a democratic statesman?A successful democratic statesman is one whose tenure in office is seen by his countrymen as representing a permanent contribution to the shaping of our democratic destiny. He is viewed as having expanded democratic...

WHAT EXACTLY IS NEOCONSERVATISM? Journalists, and now even presidential candidates, speak with an enviable confidence on who or what is "neoconservative," and seem to assume the meaning is fully revealed in the name. Those of us who are designated as "neocons" are amused, flattered, or dismissive, depending on the context. It is reasonable to wonder: Is there any "there" there? Even I, frequently referred to as the "godfather" of all those neocons, have had my moments of wonderment. A few years ago I said (and, alas, wrote) that neoconservatism had had its own distinctive qualities in its early years, but...

Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Thank you for those kind words. I'm honored by your presence here -- especially during duck-hunting season. And, as a citizen, I want to thank you not only for your leadership and wisdom during these extraordinary times, but for your courage: If Hamlet had borne half the slings-and-arrows you have, Mr. Vice President, it would've been a very short play. Hearing my checkered past recalled, I'm struck by how many places I have fled: Canada, the Democratic Party, and psychiatry. A trifecta of sorts. The reason I'm here, ladies and gentlemen, is that I have...

Purging the Neocons January 6, 2004 Did you know that the word neoconservative — often shortened to neocon — is an ethnic slur? Neither did I, but some, er, conservative pundits have set me straight. David Brooks of the New York Times says of “the people labeled neocons” that “con is short for ‘conservative’ and neo is short for ‘Jewish.’” So when other people call these people “neocons,” you see, they’re really calling them Jews, which for some reason is anti-Semitic. This must come as a surprise to Irving Kristol, who long ago cheerfully, indeed proudly, accepted the term. Though...

Every Tuesday morning during the Iraq war Washington's opinion-makers and journalists knew there was only one place to be: at the "black-coffee briefings" held at the American Enterprise Institute, a fortress-like building on M and 17th streets, opposite the main offices of the National Geographic magazine. Technically, AEI is a thinktank. More than that, though, it is the headquarters of the intellectual movement known as neoconservatism. Its staff includes famous names such as Richard Perle, Irving Kristol and Newt Gingrich. The magazine Weekly Standard, the neocon bible, is published at the same address. Black coffee was not strictly compulsory at...

Can neo-cons break out and save the world? Irving Kristol, godfather of neo-conservatism, explains why his idea has taken hold of the US governing class ‘President Bush is an engaging person, but I think for some reason he’s been captured by the neo-conservatives around him,” the Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said this month. But what exactly is neo-conservatism? Those of us who are designated as “neo-cons” are amused, flattered, or dismissive, depending on the context. Even I, frequently referred to as the “godfather” of all those neo-cons, have had my moments of wonderment. A few years ago I...

Is Bush a Ronald Reagan or a Richard Nixon? Neocons and Big Government by Bruce Bartlett Posted Aug 21, 2003 For some months, we have been hearing a lot about how neoconservatism underpins the Bush administration's foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq. Now, some neoconservatives are saying that their philosophy underpins the administration's domestic and economic policy, as well. The evidence for this contention is strong, a fact that will undoubtedly exacerbate tensions between President Bush and traditional conservatives. To understand what this debate is all about, one needs to know what neoconservatism is and where it came from....

Irving Kristol, who identifies himself as the "Godfather" of neoconservativism, is finally beginning to come clean and admit what neoconservatism stands for: statism at home and imperialism abroad. He makes this candid admission in an August 25 article in The Weekly Standard entitled "The Neoconservative Persuasion." Congratulating himself for becoming an "historic" figure (at least in his own mind) he declares: [T]he historical task and political purpose of neoconservativism would seem to be this: to convert the Republican Party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills, into a new kind of conservative politics suitable to governing a modern...

WHAT EXACTLY IS NEOCONSERVATISM? Journalists, and now even presidential candidates, speak with an enviable confidence on who or what is "neoconservative," and seem to assume the meaning is fully revealed in the name. Those of us who are designated as "neocons" are amused, flattered, or dismissive, depending on the context. It is reasonable to wonder: Is there any "there" there? Even I, frequently referred to as the "godfather" of all those neocons, have had my moments of wonderment. A few years ago I said (and, alas, wrote) that neoconservatism had had its own distinctive qualities in its early years, but...

"[President Bush is] an engaging person, but I think for some reason he's been captured by the neoconservatives around him." – Howard Dean, U.S. News & World Report, August 11, 2003 What exactly is neoconservatism? Journalists, and now even presidential candidates, speak with an enviable confidence on who or what is "neoconservative," and seem to assume the meaning is fully revealed in the name. Those of us who are designated as "neocons" are amused, flattered, or dismissive, depending on the context. It is reasonable to wonder: Is there any "there" there? Even I, frequently referred to as the "godfather" of...

Some four years ago, I ceased teaching courses on urban problems at New York University and, with a sense of relief, transferred to the graduate business school. Bright students no longer seemed much interested in urban prob lems, and the very term, "urban crisis," now had a rather archaic ring to it. At the beginning, in the mid-1960s, it had been very different. The word "urban" then had a certain magic–an aura of glamour–attached to it. We were, Lyndon Johnson had informed us, "a nation of cities," so that our urban problems had to be seen within the perspective of...

"Keeping Up With Ourselves" by IRVING KRISTOL Full citation here. The most marked characteristic of the modern world is its commitments--one can almost say its slavish subservience to social change. It is quite a new thing, never before known to history or to political philosophy; and the more one thinks on it, the more incredible it appears. No traditional political thinker, from Plato to Rousseau, could have understood it. (Perhaps this is why the student of today has so much difficulty in understanding them.) We have achieved a sovereignty over nature that they would have thought truly marvelous; but we...

<p>The swift military defeat of the Iraqi regime by U.S.-led forces represents a dramatic foreign policy victory for the evolving worldview called "neoconservatism."</p> <p>"Neoconservative ideas have penetrated very deeply and have tremendous influence," said Michael Joyce, who from the late 1970s until his retirement last year was the most powerful financial backer of the movement.</p>