2024 Ethics Awards Dinner
The annual Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence Ethics Award dinner celebrated the Naval Academy’s commitment to moral leadership. The event honored midshipmen, faculty, and leaders for their ethical contributions. Highlights included speeches from Vice Admiral Davids, USN, and Lieutenant General Whistler, USMC (Ret.), recognition of midshipmen achievements, and the presentation of the Admiral Charles R. […]
McCain 2024 opening with GEN Allen
The 2024 McCain Conference opens by welcoming attendees, including cadets, midshipmen, and faculty from various military academies. The keynote speaker highlights the importance of the Stockdale Center for leadership, ethics, and character development at the Naval Academy. The conference focus on military ethics and the challenges facing liberal democracies. Speakers are chosen for their diverse […]
Economics Panel
The 2024 McCain Conference features a panel on economic challenges, highlighting federal debt and public health crises. Dr. Anne Case discusses the rise in deaths of despair linked to economic conditions and the decline in life expectancy among less-educated Americans. Mark Goldwein addresses the escalating federal interest payments on debt, emphasizing the need for fiscal […]
Populism Panel
This panel discussion at the 2024 McCain conference focuses on populism and its threat to liberal democracy. The speakers emphasize how populism often arises in response to grievances among economically and culturally marginalized groups. They explore how populist movements challenge democratic norms by promoting executive power and rejecting institutional checks. Strategies for addressing populism include […]
Identity Panel
This panel discussion explores identity and race in America, focusing on critical race theory, historical racial inequality, and current debates on race-conscious policies. Professor Janel George highlights the enduring effects of legalized racial inequality and the role of critical race theory in addressing structural discrimination. Yasha Monk critiques radical identity politics, arguing that excessive focus […]
Technology Panel
This panel discussion addressed how AI and technology affect liberal democracy. Key concerns included AI’s role in epistemic bubbles, nudge algorithms, micro-targeting, and generative AI’s impact on belief formation and political agency. Possible solutions included regulation, third-party audits, and promoting intellectual virtues in education. Sunstein’s presentation explored group dynamics, showing how polarization and extremism often […]
Religion Panel
The 2024 McCain Conference at the Stockdale Center focused on technology, liberalism, and religion in public discourse. Professors discussed how religion influences ethical leadership, military decisions, and democracy. They highlighted debates on whether religious arguments can guide public policy and explored concerns over religious pluralism in a liberal society. A recurring theme was balancing religious […]
Civic Virtues
The discussion at the Stockdale Center addressed civic virtue, its decline, and ways to cultivate it in liberal democracies. Peter Berkowitz critiqued McIntyre’s views on liberalism, arguing virtues like civility and tolerance are compatible with democracy. Yuval Levin emphasized the role of institutions—families, schools, and religious communities—in fostering these virtues, while warning of the current […]
Post-Liberalism
Patrick Deneen, a political science professor at Notre Dame, discussed the decline of liberalism and its implications in a post-liberal world. He reflected on the internal contradictions of liberalism, referencing thinkers like Mill, Marcuse, and Strauss, and suggested that liberalism naturally leads to its own undoing. Deneen argues for a return to pre-liberal traditions, blending […]
Liberalism’s Future
Francis Fukuyama delivered a defense of classical liberalism, defining it as the belief in universal human dignity, rule of law, and limitations on state power. He addressed critiques of liberalism from both the right (neoliberalism) and the left (woke liberalism), highlighting their extensions into harmful territories. He argued that while neoliberalism can be reversed through […]