The Paradox of National Liberation: India, Israel, and Algeria

Michael Walzer, one of America's foremost political thinkers and public intellectuals, gave a series of four lectures at Yale's MacMillan Center on "What Happened to National Liberation?" The series, the Henry L. Stimson Lectures on World Affairs, took place over four days spanning two weeks, April 3-11. The first lecture, "The Paradox of National Liberation: India, Israel, and Algeria," will take place on Wednesday, April 3. The second lecture, "The Paradox Illustrated: Zionism against Judaism," will take place on Thursday, April 4. On Wednesday and Thursday, April 10 and 11, Walzer will lecture on "The Paradox Denied: Marxist Perspectives" and "The Future of National Liberation," respectively.


Walzer, who is professor emeritus at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, has written about a wide variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy, including political obligation, just and unjust war, nationalism and ethnicity, economic justice, and the welfare state. He has been credited with playing a critical role in the revival of a practical, issue-focused ethics and in the development of a pluralist approach to political and moral life. Walzer's books include Just and Unjust Wars (1977), On Toleration (1997), and Arguing About War (2004). He has served as editor of the political journal Dissent for more than three decades. Currently, he is working on issues having to do with international justice and the new forms of welfare and also on a collaborative project focused on the history of Jewish political thought.

The lectures are co-sponsored by the MacMillan Center and Yale University Press, and will be published by the latter as part of an arrangement with the center that dates back to 1998. The funding for the lecture series comes from an anonymous donor in honor of Henry L. Stimson, Yale College 1889, an attorney and statesman whose government service culminated with his tenure as secretary of ar during World War II.