Keen On

From Dylan to democracy, from Bobby Kennedy to Putin's Russia - this wide-ranging conversation with Michael Ignatieff riffs off “The Adults in the Room,” his latest essay for Liberties Quarterly. A liberal intellectual and politician who grew up enchanted by the Sixties counterculture, Ignatieff is deeply concerned by the American lurch into MAGAism. That said, however, the Canadian still seems (half) in love with the United States and hasn’t totally given up on what he calls liberalism's “incorrigible vitality”. Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways from our conversation with Ignatieff:* Ignatieff sees the current global situation as potentially the biggest change since 1945, marked by a fundamental shift in America's approach to international relations under Trump - from viewing allies as sources of power to treating them as potential adversaries to be exploited.* He describes a profound crisis in the international rules-based order, with institutions like the UN Security Council deadlocked, Geneva Conventions b