Jun 13

[The European Conservative] Whither National Sovereignty?

Emmanuel Macron’s invocations of “European sovereignty” notwithstanding, the nation — not Europe, nor the entire world — remains the only viable locus for the exercise of democratic power. — Editor’s note — This essay is adapted from the author’s remarks at a panel on “Sovereignty and the Nation-State from a European Perspective” at New Direction’s Nostos conference in Oslo on May 21st in honour of the late Sir Roger Scruton. The other panelists were Prof. Hannes Gissurarson (University of…

Politics

2 min read

[The European Conservative] Whither National Sovereignty?

Jun 6

[The European Conservative] “Everyman’s Bill Buckley”

Conservative author Stanton Evans, who died of cancer in 2015, was every bit as bright as Buckley, and more kind-hearted. A new biography by Steven F. Hayward is out to re-apportion praise. — M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom. By Steven F. Hayward. Encounter Books; 400 pages; $33.99. Someday in 1970, William F. Buckley Jr. told Playboy magazine that the biggest problem facing the conservative movement was “a scarcity of good writers and journalists”. What seemed like a yawning shortfall then…

Conservatism

2 min read

[The European Conservative] “Everyman’s Bill Buckley”

Jun 3

[The American Conservative] What Would John Quincy Do?

The geopolitical worldview of our sixth president holds lessons for our present predicament. — John Quincy Adams, claims the acclaimed pro-restraint scholar Angelo Codevilla in his posthumous new book America’s Rise and Fall among Nations (2022), is “the fount of American geopolitical thought.” Founts tend to spring intermittently and vary in intensity, but in Codevilla’s rather Manichean account of American history, all foreign policy…

Foreign Policy

1 min read

[The American Conservative] What Would John Quincy Do?

The geopolitical worldview of our sixth president holds lessons for our present predicament.

John Quincy Adams, claims the acclaimed pro-restraint scholar Angelo Codevilla in his posthumous new book America’s Rise and Fall among Nations (2022), is “the fount of American geopolitical thought.” Founts tend to spring intermittently and vary in intensity, but in Codevilla’s rather Manichean account of American history, all foreign policy…

May 23

[The American Conservative] Righting Citizenship

The question of birthright citizenship is far from settled. Despite lawyers’ hesitancy, the issue is as relevant as ever today. — The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State. By Edward J. Erler. Encounter Books; 184 pages; $27.99. Few policy issues are more central to a nation’s sovereignty than determining who gets to be a citizen and how; every other problem or question flows, one way or another…

Immigration

1 min read

[The American Conservative] Righting Citizenship

May 9

[The European Conservative] On Natalist Narratives

The demographic corollaries of an individualist society won’t be solved with more individualism. — On a recent visit to my hometown of Madrid, I found it worthwhile to attend a panel on family policy hosted by a religious-cum-scholarly group deeply invested in the issue. Three speakers took turns to intone, with varying degrees of alarm, what is by now the three-pronged conservative consensus on…

Family

1 min read

[The European Conservative] On Natalist Narratives

Apr 27

[The European Conservative] The Lure of National Dependence

West European nations are being coaxed by foreign powers into giving away their independence in exchange for better access to the global commons — in the case of Russia and China — and enhanced security — in the case of the US. — Editor's note — This essay is adapted from my opening remarks at a panel on “challenges to national independence” at the National Conservatism conference in Brussels on March 24th, 2022, with Baroness Foster of Oxton DBE (UK House of Lords), Francesco Giubilei (Nazione Futura, Italy) and Juan Ángel Soto Gómez…

Geopolitics

2 min read

[The European Conservative] The Lure of National Dependence

Apr 22

[The European Conservative] Éric Zemmour's Jewish Paradox

His underwhelming flop among the general electorate notwithstanding, the right-wing candidate has exposed a deep fracture within France’s Jewish community that may reappear in future races. — When I first met Éric Zemmour at a meet-and-greet for Hispanic politicos held last October in a ritzy Parisian hotel, the question I asked him may have let slip a somewhat overdone philosemitism on my part. The response I got, however, helps make sense of the polemicist’s — now failed…

Judaism

1 min read

[The European Conservative] Éric Zemmour's Jewish Paradox

Apr 21

[Mace Magazine] The Meaning of Brexit

Britain never meant to entangle itself in a continental march towards federalization and has seized on Brexit as an opportunity to project power, argues an erudite book by eminent historian Robert Tombs. — This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe. By Robert Tombs. Allen Lane; 224 pages; 16.99$. “The future of Europe and its peoples”, declares Robert Tombs in the preface to This Sovereign Isle (2021), “now worries me more than that of Britain”. What are the odds he’s sincere? A…

Brexit

2 min read

Apr 8

[The European Conservative] Who Killed Jérémy Cohen?

When his death is proven to be an antisemitic murder, will France’s media and political establishment confess to having covered up the case? — PARIS — Antisemitism could be rearing its murderous face in France — yet again. In the evening of February 16th, 30-year-old French Jew Jérémy Cohen was savagely beaten to the ground by a thuggish, multiethnic mob of loitering youths. The incident took place near the Bobigny train station, in the…

Anti Semitism

2 min read

[The European Conservative] Who Killed Jérémy Cohen?

Mar 28

[The European Conservative] Looking for Marta

Thirteen years later, a Netflix series revisits the mysterious, gruesome murder case that kept Spain for years in a state of shocked, anxious outrage. — In review: Dónde está Marta? (2021), Netflix miniseries. "Burial,” wrote Sigmund Freud’s chief French disciple Jacques Lacan in a compendium of essays published posthumously as The Ethics of Psychoanalysis in 1998, “is the first sign in which we recognize humanity.” This oft-quoted citation has somewhat eclipsed the larger context Lacan…

Murder

1 min read

[The European Conservative] Looking for Marta

Thirteen years later, a Netflix series revisits the mysterious, gruesome murder case that kept Spain for years in a state of shocked, anxious outrage.

In review: Dónde está Marta? (2021), Netflix miniseries.

"Burial,” wrote Sigmund Freud’s chief French disciple Jacques Lacan in a compendium of essays published posthumously as The Ethics of Psychoanalysis in 1998, “is the first sign in which we recognize humanity.” This oft-quoted citation has somewhat eclipsed the larger context Lacan…

[The European Conservative] Whither National Sovereignty?

[The European Conservative] “Everyman’s Bill Buckley”

[The American Conservative] What Would John Quincy Do?

[The American Conservative] What Would John Quincy Do?

The geopolitical worldview of our sixth president holds lessons for our present predicament.

[The American Conservative] Righting Citizenship

[The European Conservative] On Natalist Narratives

[The European Conservative] The Lure of National Dependence

[The European Conservative] Éric Zemmour's Jewish Paradox

[Mace Magazine] The Meaning of Brexit

[The European Conservative] Who Killed Jérémy Cohen?

[The European Conservative] Looking for Marta

[The European Conservative] Looking for Marta

Thirteen years later, a Netflix series revisits the mysterious, gruesome murder case that kept Spain for years in a state of shocked, anxious outrage.

Jorge González-Gallarza