American Affairs

Last updated
American Affairs
Editor and founder Julius Krein
Assistant Editor Gladden Pappin
CategoriesPolitics
FrequencyQuarterly
First issueFebruary 2017;7 years ago (2017)
CompanyAmerican Affairs Foundation Inc.
CountryUnited States
Based inBoston
LanguageEnglish
Website americanaffairsjournal.org
ISSN 2475-8809

American Affairs is a quarterly American political journal founded in February 2017 by Julius Krein. The editors describe the journal as blending the literature and philosophy of the Claremont Review of Books with the political interests of National Affairs . [1] [2]

Contents

Its project has been described in Tablet as: "a dense, technically sophisticated form of neo-Hamiltonian economic nationalism, pushed in various forms by Michael Lind, David P. Goldman, and Krein himself," based on the contention that "a short-sighted American elite has allowed the country’s manufacturing core—the key to both widespread domestic prosperity and national security in the face of a mercantilist China—to be hollowed out," just as "Production and technical expertise have shifted to China and Asia, domestic capital has flowed into unproductive share buybacks or tech schemes (Uber, WeWork), and America has become a country with a two-tiered service economy, with bankers, consultants, and software engineers at the top and Walmart greeters and Uber drivers at the bottom." [3]

Since its founding in 2017, American Affairs has become known for in-depth articles on trade and industrial policy, [4] criticisms of globalization [5] and financialization, [6] advocacy of family childcare allowances [7] and infrastructure spending, [8] as well as for bringing together right and left-wing critics of neoliberalism. [9] Aside from public policy, it has also covered political theory and cultural criticism. It has been characterized in the New Statesman as a "heterodox policy journal" [9] featuring, for instance, conservative arguments in favor of a greater role for the state [10] alongside left-wing arguments against identity politics [11] and open borders. [12] Notable articles include Krein's "The Real Class War" which "attracted attention from both left and right in November 2019 by upending the conversation over class in the Democratic primary." [9]  

History

A predecessor to American Affairs is the Journal of American Greatness, a short-lived 2016 political blog best known for publishing "The Flight 93 Election," a widely read essay about the 2016 presidential election by the pseudonymous author Publius Decius Mus, later revealed to be Michael Anton. [13] [1] [14]

American Affairs was initially considered by some as a "pro-Trump journal [launched] in an effort to give the Trump movement some intellectual heft". [15] But in 2017, Krein wrote an opinion article in The New York Times publicly acknowledging his regret in voting for the candidate. [16] Jennifer Schuessler of The New York Times writes: "the magazine seeks to fill the void left by a conservative intellectual establishment more focused on opposing Mr. Trump than on grappling with the rejection of globalism and free-market dogma that propelled his victory."

Contributors

Notable contributors to the magazine include a range of figures from across the political and ideological spectrum, such as: Michael Anton, Robert D. Atkinson, Mehrsa Baradaran, Thierry Baudet, Daniel A. Bell, Fred Block, Dan Breznitz, Christopher Caldwell, Oren Cass, Angelo M. Codevilla, Colin Crouch, Patrick J. Deneen, Ronald W. Dworkin, Fredrik Erixon, Nancy Fraser, Amber A'Lee Frost, Frank Furedi, Maurice Glasman, James K. Galbraith, David P. Goldman, Allen C. Guelzo, Ofir Haivry, Shadi Hamid, James Hankins, Yoram Hazony, Joseph Heath, Arthur Herman, John B. Judis, Eric Kaufmann, Joel Kotkin, Ryszard Legutko, Michael Lind, Edward Luttwak, Bruno Maçães, Noel Malcolm, Pierre Manent, Lawrence M. Mead, Bill Mitchell, Angela Nagle, David Oks, Eric A. Posner, R.R. Reno, Ganesh Sitaraman, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Matthew Stoller, Wolfgang Streeck, Cass Sunstein, Ruy Teixiera, Nick Timothy, Roberto M. Unger, Adrian Vermeule, Henry Williams, L. Randall Wray, and Slavoj Zizek. [17]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladden Pappin</span> Political theorist and editor

Gladden Pappin is president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, Hungary's foreign policy research institute of state. A political theorist, he was formerly associate professor of politics at the University of Dallas. From 2021 to 2023 he was a visiting senior fellow at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest, Hungary. He is cofounder and deputy editor of American Affairs, as well as cofounder of Postliberal Order.

References

  1. 1 2 Johnson, Eliana (1 March 2017). "Meet the Harvard whiz kid who wants to explain Trumpism". Politico. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  2. ↑ "Welcoming two newcomers On a pair of publications that will ponder the political puzzles of our day". The New Criterion. March 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "The Battle on the New Right for the Soul of Trump's America". Tablet Magazine. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  4. ↑ MacDougald, Park (2019-07-19). "What the Hell Is 'National Conservatism' Anyway?". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  5. ↑ Williams, David Oks, Henry (2022-11-20). "The Long, Slow Death of Global Development". American Affairs Journal. Retrieved 2024-03-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Krein, Julius (2021-08-20). "The Value of Nothing: Capital versus Growth". American Affairs Journal. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  7. ↑ "Gladden Pappin Wants to Make Conservatism Great Again". Texas Monthly. 2020-12-16. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  8. ↑ "How the GOP Can Win Over Millennials". National Review. 2020-10-18. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  9. 1 2 3 "The new intellectuals of the American right". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  10. ↑ "Toward a Party of the State". American Affairs Journal. 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  11. ↑ "From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump—and Beyond". American Affairs Journal. 2017-11-20. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  12. ↑ "The Left Case against Open Borders". American Affairs Journal. 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2021-02-16.
  13. ↑ Schuessler, Jennifer (8 March 2017). "Talking Trumpism: A New Political Journal Enters the Fray". The New York Times .
  14. ↑ Sanneh, Kelefa (25 February 2017). "A New Trumpist Magazine Débuts at the Harvard Club". The New Yorker . Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  15. ↑ Johnson, Eliana; Dawsey, Josh (2017-07-23). "GOP despairs at inability to deliver". Politico . Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  16. ↑ Krein, Julius (August 8, 2017). "Opinion: I Voted for Trump. And I Sorely Regret It". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ "Archives". American Affairs Journal. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
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