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Jean Bethke Elshtain on The Campbell Conversations

Jean Bethke Elshtain
Jean Bethke Elshtain

What is the state of American democracy?  What are the roots of our democratic shortcomings, and what do we need to do to improve the health of the political process?  Jean Bethke Elshtain, democratic theorist, ethicist, and noted public intellectual at the University of Chicago—and author of Democracy on Trial—wrestles with these mighty questions in this substantively rich interview.  Elshtain has also written an influential book on just war—Just War Against Terror—and she considers the American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan through that lens.  Was the war justified?  Was it worth it? 

Grant Reeher is Director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and a professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also creator, host and program director of “The Campbell Conversations” on WRVO, a weekly regional public affairs program featuring extended in-depth interviews with regional and national writers, politicians, activists, public officials, and business professionals.