Civil Liberties

Anywhere else, it might have played out as just another low-stakes battle between policy wonks. But in Japan, a country struggling to find a brand of nationalism that it can embrace, a recent war of words between a flamboyant newspaper editorialist and an editor at a premier foreign-policy think tank was something far more alarming: the latest assault in a campaign of right-wing intimidation of public figures that is squelching free speech and threatening to roll back civil society.

On… more

Alan Duncan, a Conservative MP, is your typical British politician. Which is to say, if he were an American he'd be atypical. He reads a lot, writes a lot, thinks a lot; he seems motivated by ideas, as opposed to just personal ambition. And he has ideas aplenty, on the future of the British Conservative Party, on the future of the conservative movement worldwide, and on the future of freedom in general. And since the Conservatives are now ahead of… more

Since the breaking story of the alleged CIA kidnappings, rendition program and secret prisons in Europe, the European Union has released a report stating that "European governments condoned the abduction, transport and detention of terrorist suspects by the United States on European territory." The report examines the extent to which there have been violations of national, EU, and international law.

Cem Oezdemir, a Member of the European Parliament, currently serves as Vice President for the Temporary… more

Robert Wright is Editor in Chief of Bloggingheads.tv and the author of The Moral Animal (Pantheon, 1994), Nonzero (Pantheon, 2000), and The Evolution of God (Little, Brown, 2009). He is a contributing editor for The New Republic and a contributor to Time and Slate. He has also written… more

The bipartisan elite that runs this country is not to be trusted with safeguarding America's national destiny. Most of these elitists worship the strange gods of multiculturalism, globalism and relativism, and so they are blind to the practical realities of preserving a single country -- this country.

The most influential newspaper in the United States, The New York Times, demonstrates a determined carelessness about domestic tranquillity and homeland security. And here's the scary part: Top politicians, including the… more

Remember when the Internet was supposed to liberate everyone? Well, that was then. Today, it's a different story.

But wait! Here comes the U.S. government, defending our freedom. On Tuesday, the State Department announced its Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT, get it?). That's right, the same Uncle Sam who brought us such secret operations as Carnivore, Total Information Awareness and the National Security Agency wiretaps is now giving the world the gift of free and open speech. Ri-i-i-ight.… more

Mark Twain once wryly observed that Americans had the great good fortune to enjoy the freedom of speech -- -- and the good sense never to use it.

The violent protests that have erupted in the wake of the publication of cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad have sparked a profound debate throughout the Western world over external threats to, and internal limits on, freedom of expression. In both the United States and Europe, defenders of the newspapers that… more

Call it a Tale of Two Places--and a Difference.

One part of the tale was told Tuesday in a Georgia Baptist church. Another part has been told in the Muslim world over the past two weeks.

Yet, perhaps the most important part--the difference--tells us how one violent place became peaceful, and how the other violent place became more violent.

In Georgia, for the funeral for Coretta Scott King, the mood was somber but sweet. There was George W. Bush,… more

As we look to 2006, it's hard to be optimistic about the future of freedom. But over the course of the 21st century, there's reason for hope--if we think boldly enough.

In the short term, the threat to liberty is obvious enough: People overseas want to kill us, and so the government must protect us--although sometimes governments misuse their might, focusing on internal dissidents, forgetting about external enemies.

But the continuing advance of technology has brought a new… more

It wouldn't be the holiday shopping season without schmaltzy commercials, mall Santas, and Halo 2, the most hotly anticipated video game in American entertainment history. Expected to gross $80 million, this "shoot-'em-up" sensation may not change the world, but it could help put the compassion back into conservatism with a financial boost for chronically under-funded domestic policy programs.

The Bush administration has talked a good game about supporting federal programs designed to keep kids safe from abuse and neglect, drugs, gun… more