Religion & Liberty Online Archives

International Affairs

June 11, 2018

North Korea and the Trump-Kim summit: Don’t ignore human rights

The changes in U.S.-North Korean relations over the past year have been drastic enough to give any casual observer whiplash: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump have gone from openly exchanging threats of nuclear war to agreeing to the first ever meeting between a North Korean head of state and a sitting U.S. Continue Reading...
Korean DMZ Pamunjon South Korea
June 07, 2018

‘Global trade is not a gunfight at the O.K. Corral’

Some mental images are especially vivid. One phrase stands out in the war of words preceding the brewing U.S.-EU trade war. “Global trade is not a gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” said French finance minister Bruno Le Maire last Thursday, after President Trump imposed new tariffs on steel and aluminum. Continue Reading...
June 04, 2018

6 facts about the brewing U.S.-EU trade war

Late last week, President Donald Trump announced he would impose steel and aluminum tariffs against U.S. allies across the transatlantic sphere. Here are the facts you need to know: President Trump applied a 25 percent tariff on steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum against the European Union, as well as NAFTA trade partners Canada and Mexico. Continue Reading...
May 31, 2018

France’s 200 roads to serfdom

One of Europe’s most robust welfare states may be proving that government intervention and true social solidarity are inimical forces. Many economic interventionists on both sides of the Atlantic cite the Catholic social teaching of “solidarity” – or, at least, their own conception of it – to justify far-reaching government policies of wealth confiscation and redistribution. Continue Reading...
May 29, 2018

The NHS and the spell of the White Witch

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis described the dreary state of Narnia under the curse of the White Witch as “always winter but never Christmas.” His assessment may soon apply to the National Health Service (NHS), whose annually intensifying “winter crisis” threatens to become permanent, according to the UK’s leading doctors’ association. Continue Reading...
May 21, 2018

Can human rights be repealed by majority vote?

This Friday, May 25, Irish voters will decide in a national referendum whether to repeal Article 8 of the Constitution, which “acknowledges” the rights of all living human beings in Ireland, including unborn children, and encourages lawmakers to enact “laws to defend and vindicate that right.” Continue Reading...