The Ideas Letter
Greetings, Ideas Letter friends. We are fast approaching our fiftieth issue and will soon publish a hard-copy anthology of a few dozen of our finest pieces. It will cost you nada. We only ask for a spot on the bookshelf, right next to your Partisan Reviews, Transitions, Caravans, and Letras Libres!
For Issue 47 we are thrilled to feature (again) the preeminent political economist Yuen Yuen Ang. In her previous essay for The Ideas Letter, Ang took aim at the recent Nobel Prize laureates in economics for misunderstanding both China and the West. This time Ang sharpens her arrow to press us to reconsider stalwart paradigms of development. Moving away from entrenched notions about institutions and growth, Ang hopes to think anew, and to use this moment of crisis to reframe how economic change unfolds. Pragmatism, in a word, is her intellectual guide.
Giorgio Jackson, another returnee to The Ideas Letter, is a former minister in the Chilean government of President Gabriel Boric. We asked Jackson to focus his mind on the phenomenon of Jeanette Jara, the moderate Communist (no oxymoron) running for president in November and taking Chile by storm. 16 November will be a nail-biter.
Our curated content kicks off with a critical exchange about political theorist who has been having a renaissance these last years, Judith Shklar. As you’ll see, part of Shklar’s renewed relevance (she died, far too young, in the early 1990s) has to do with the dystopian world we currently inhabit.
Dirk Moses assays that dystopia in his essay from Berlin, focusing on the German concept of Staatsräson, the principle that the state’s interests take fundamental precedence, even if that means overriding the law.
Featured Essays
What is The Ideas Letter
Welcome to The Ideas Letter, a publication that prizes the unconventional. We are not in the business of persuading. We won’t try to convince you of anything—other than that the world is complex and reality ever-shifting. We are not here to advocate. What you will find, and we hope embrace, are contributions from across ideological aisles, from a broad range of disciplines and a true cross-section of thinking. If catholicity is your métier, and you are uneasy with banging the drum but would rather hear its many sounds, this is the place for you.
We really like critique. Not the mean-spirited or spiteful kind, but rather commentary that raises tough questions, unpacks assumptions, sometimes calls people on the carpet, and always provides opportunity for discussion. That is what we are really after—facilitating, augmenting, furthering, and bolstering debate around issues of consequence.
You’ll find here articles, essays, and criticism that will challenge you to think. Let us know your thoughts, and make sure to tell a friend. Or even someone with whom you disagree!