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 […]
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 […]
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 […]