Michael Oakeshott's Cold War Liberalism

During the Cold War, political thinkers in the West debated the balance between the requirements of liberal democracy and national security. This debate resonates in today's East Asia and especially Korea, where an ideological-military standoff between democracy and a totalitarian system persists. The thinkers often identified as 'Cold War liberals'—Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Raymond Aron, Friedrich Hayek, and Michael Oakeshott—are worth revisiting in this context. Of these, Oakeshott is the least-well understood in East Asia and therefore particularly deserving of attention. Especially valuable are his ideas about the limits of rationalism in politics, the irrelevance of conventional views of liberalism and conservatism, and how constitutional democracy should be defined and defended against various forms of anti-liberal politics. In this book, leading Oakeshott scholars from around the world explore these ideas and their implications for East Asia in ten illuminating and readable essays.

Terry Nardin is Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. His books include Law, Morality, and the Relations of States, The Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott, and, as co-editor, International Relations in Political Thought and Oakeshott's Lectures in the History of Political Thought.

The Asan Institute for Policy Studies is an independent think tank located in Seoul, South Korea, that provides innovative policy solutions and spearheads public discourse on many of the core issues that Korea, East Asia, and the global community face. The goal of the institute is not only to offer policy solutions but also to train experts in public diplomacy and related fields in order to strengthen Korea's capacity to better tackle some of the most pressing problems affecting the country, the region, and the world today.