It matters to know who we’re up against

This week we were privileged to have Dr David Kilcullen deliver our John Bonython Lecture addressing the global conflict between liberal nations and Islamist militants. It was a timely assessment of both the threat and its root causes.
 
This year's lecture fell within days of two significant anniversaries in the history of conflict – the fall of the Berlin Wall and Remembrance Day. Each of these anniversaries reminds us not to forget how fragile peace and liberty can be. Each reminds us to find lessons in our past that can protect our future.  
 
WW1 is often described as a war into which the parties lumbered as an historical inevitability. The strengthening of alliances across pre-war Europe had both bound parties to fight and simultaneously pushed them on to a war footing that increased the likelihood of a fight occurring. Counter to this view are those who acknowledge that even if they didn't quite start it, Germany bears a great responsibility. Chancellor Angela Merkel plainly stated at a recent commemoration service, "With the first-ever use of chemical weapons by German troops in the 2nd Battle of Ypres in 1915, the threshold to a new level of cruelty was crossed".
 
It was not inevitable that Germany would invade Flanders; it was an act based on a set of imperial ideas that led to the invasion. Similarly the Soviet revolution and eventual communist dictatorship of East Germany were not, as the Marxists believed, inevitable. This too was a result of action guided by ideas, as was the eventual set of events that set East Germany free. Chancellor Merkel said at the 25 year anniversary commemoration, "As someone who lived for 35 years under the yoke of dictatorship in the GDR, denied my freedom, I have a special affinity with the unconditional desire for freedom and democracy."
 
Once again, the world faces a threat to liberty from people who believe their domination is historically inevitable and correct. People who believe individuals will obliterate their identity in subjugation to a collective ideal imposed from above.
 
Dr Kilcullen was able to put this into perspective, and I will quote at length here because it bears repeating:

"ISIS and groups like it are horrendous, but they're not unique: in some ways, they're just the latest in a long line of ideological enemies of liberal democracy, foes of the enlightenment that go back to 18th century Absolutist monarchism, Clericalism, and Authoritarianism, to 19th century ideas like Slavophilism and Communism, and to 20th century movements like the Nazi racial community of blood and soil, Fascism, Japanese militarism, or Stalinism. Today's threat will go the way of those historical threats, I have no doubt about that – but it won't happen without effort from all of us, a conscious effort to preserve our freedoms here at home, and to extend those freedoms to ALL members of our society, even as we defend them abroad."

To win our battle against the latest enemy of liberty it matters to know what we are up against. But it matters just as much to know what we are fighting for. As Dr Kilcullen said on Wednesday night, we must redouble our commitment to, "those values on which our society is founded and on which – whatever else we disagree on – we have wide consensus."
 
Again, I share here Dr Kilcullen's conclusions from the speech:

"What are these values? Individual freedom and the personal responsibility that comes with it; the pursuit of happiness and the sanctity of life. We believe in a secular state where authority derives from the consent of the governed and whose purpose is to serve the needs of its citizens. We believe in a free market economy tempered by appropriate regulation and the rule of law. We believe in equality before the law and equal rights."

The CIS was established to fight for and promote such values and ideas.  It's clear that this intellectual quest must be unceasing and I look forward to you continuing support in pursuit of that great endeavour.

 

Greg Lindsay is Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Studies.