National Affairs Magazine
National Affairs is a new quarterly journal that aspires to help Americans think a little more clearly about the challenges of governing ourselves. We will publish essays about public policy, society, culture, politics, and the world of ideas, with an eye to what a responsible and thoughtful American ought to know and to think about, and with a special concern for domestic policy and political economy, broadly understood.
This may seem a strange time to launch such a venture. It is, for one thing, a terrible time for magazine publishing, as the economics of the information age takes its toll. It might be thought a terrible time for a quarterly schedule and long-form essays, too, as internet opinion journalism has conditioned us to seek analysis in small but quick and frequent doses, like chickens pecking at their feed. A glance at the popular media would suggest it is also a terrible time for taking up large public questions — as the country’s interest seems to be directed elsewhere.
But calamity is ever the season of reflection, and a terrible time is often just the right time for new ventures. This one is especially called for now because the challenges of governing ourselves today are great and daunting, and are poorly understood. In the wake of a bewildering economic crisis, the foundations of America’s post-war economic order have suddenly come into question. We are struggling with the exploding costs and inefficiencies of health care and entitlements, and fiscal disaster looms as our society ages.
