Finished reading: The Virtue of Nationalism by Yoram Hazony 📚

A very readable book. Hazony’s arguments are clear, his writing lucid. One of his main contentions is that the best political order is “an order of independent national states.” He sees this order as the ideal mean between violent anarchy and hegemonic empire. While in a previous work Hazony looked at the Hebrew Bible as a source for philosophical reflection, in The Virtues of Nationalism he considers how the Old Testament ought to inform political theory. He argues that there is a “biblical preference” for the national state, though he doesn’t base his position solely on scriptural grounds. He’s especially critical of all “imperialist” political projects, of which he sees the European Union as the greatest contemporary example. The current “liberal imperialist” impulse, according to Hazony, owes much to Kant’s “enlightened” vision of humanity’s progress from anarchy to national independence to world empire. He contrasts the imperialist vision—given to abstraction, intolerant of those who demur at their utopian dreams for humanity—with that of the nationalist—a particularist, loyal to his nation but also humble and self-critical enough to be skeptical of over-extending his limited perception of the good. Much to chew on here, that’s for sure.