By Adrian Pabst · Tuesday, March 3, 2009 An earlier version of this talk was presented at the 2009 Telos Conference.
In a little-noticed coincidence, President Dmitry Medvedev and the then Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama delivered major foreign policy speeches in the summer of 2008 in Berlin. Notwithstanding important differences, both recognized the flaws of the prevailing international system and emphasized the need for a new global order that transcends narrow national self-interest and addresses common security threats. Crucially, President Medvedev and Senator Obama each vowed to strengthen U.S.-Russian ties and to build broader alliances.
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By Adrian Pabst · Thursday, September 25, 2008 Last week’s roller coaster on the world’s financial markets highlights the extreme volatility that characterizes the current economic system. Volatility is generated not just by uncertain prospects and a lack of trust in existing institutions and practices but also—and perhaps above all—by new forms of risk linked to complex financial instruments such as derivative trading.
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By Adrian Pabst · Tuesday, July 22, 2008 The Anglican Communion, the world’s third largest grouping of Christians after the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox churches, is on the brink of disintegration. The battle that pits liberal modernizers against Evangelical conservatives is fast dissolving the fabric underpinning Anglicanism, threatening a permanent breakup. Anglican Christianity needs a new direction if another schism is to be averted.
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By Adrian Pabst · Saturday, June 21, 2008 After Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Reform Treaty in last week’s referendum, the European Union is in uncharted waters and needs a complete rethink. But the early signs are that Brussels and the national capitals have not grasped the true nature of this latest crisis. Paradoxically, the No vote in Ireland is pro-European. Like the Dutch and the French in 2005 (when both rebuffed the Constitutional Treaty), the Irish support a wider political project—they just want a Union different from the one currently on offer.
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By Adrian Pabst · Tuesday, April 1, 2008 Over the past week or so, Senator Barack Obama has delivered two major speeches that will not only shape his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination but also have the potential to transform American politics.
The first was the widely publicized and debated speech on race, delivered on March 18 in Philadelphia. The second was given on March 27 in Manhattan and focused on the economy. Neither can be simply dismissed as a piece of electoral rhetoric. Each belies the accusation that the junior Senator from Illinois is all about style and lacks any substance. Together, they sketch the contours of an Obama Presidency that could change America and its perception in the world.
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By Adrian Pabst · Monday, February 11, 2008 Among the many myths that govern academic and public debates about the meaning and future of Europe, none is more persistent than that of secularization. The story goes something like this. After the dark ages and the “wars of religion” in the seventeenth century, Europe embarked on a slow but steady trajectory away from religion and faith and toward science and reason. Aided by the Protestant Reformation, the Treaty of Westphalia established the principle of “cuius regio, eius religio,” thus enthroning the primacy of the state over the Church and politics over religion. As a result, clerical and political absolutism sanctified by Rome was abandoned in favor of popular revolutions and democratic principles. Gradually, hereditary empires and absolute monarchies gave way to constitutional rule and the self-determination of sovereign nations and their enlightened leaders. The Enlightenment and the Revolution of 1848 cemented the independence from God and the priesthood and drew the battle lines between the wave of progress and the forces of reaction that culminated in the French separation of state and church in 1905. The triumph of positivism and the advent of science and technology did much to discredit the anti-modernist stance of Roman Catholicism.
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