Leo Strauss and International Relations: The politics of modernity's abyss

This article argues that an engagement with the political philosophy of Leo Strauss is of considerable value in International Relations (IR), in relation to the study of both recent US foreign policy and contemporary IR theory. The question of Straussian activities within and close to the foreign policy-making establishment in the United States during the period leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq has been the focus of significant scholarly and popular attention in recent years. This article makes the case that several individuals influenced by Strauss exercised considerable influence in the fields of intelligence production, the media and think tanks, and traces the ways in which elements of Strauss’ thought are discernible in their interventions in these spheres. It further argues that Strauss’ political philosophy is of broader significance for IR insofar as it can be read as a securitising response to the dangers he associated with the foundationlessness of the modern condition. The article demonstrates that the politics of this response are of crucial importance for contemporary debates between traditional and critical IR theorists

Adam Smith: left or right?

This article engages with some of the recent literature on Adam Smith which has sought to distance the ‘father of economics’ from his contemporary free market admirers and to reclaim him as a hero and inspiration for the political left. The article explores a problem for this attempted recovery of Smith by the contemporary social democrat which arises from his strictly negative understanding of the virtue of justice. I argue that Smith's distinctions between justice, benevolence and ‘police’ should be taken seriously as an attempt at introducing conceptual clarity into the terminology of political theory. The article makes the case for reading Smith as someone who quite explicitly rejects the notion of regarding our obligations to the poor in terms of justice and whose distinctly sceptical view of politics makes him an unlikely inspiration for contemporary philosophers concerned with developing normative notions of social justice intended to justify the redistribution of wealth

Adam Smith’s Vision of the Ethical Manager

Adam Smith, business ethics, social networks, network ethics, self-interest, virtue, corporate social responsibility,