The Civic Thought and Statecraft Seminar is a weekly academic component of The Institute of World Politics’ National Security Research Internship Program. Led by IWP’s Dean of Academics, Timothy McCranor, the seminar is designed to advance IWP’s broader mission of cultivating informed patriotism, moral leadership, civic virtue, and a principled understanding of the ethical use of national power.
Created in connection with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the seminar explores the moral legitimacy of the American Revolution and the founding principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
To provide a framework for assessing those questions, interns are introduced to the just war tradition and its major criteria for determining whether the resort to war can be morally justified, to include legitimate authority, just cause, right intention, proportionality, last resort, and likelihood of success.
These principles will then be applied to the American Revolution and consider whether the colonists were justified in taking up arms against Great Britain.
The central assignment of the seminar is a culminating debate in which the interns are divided into three teams: the Patriots, the Loyalists, and the British. Each team must develop and defend the strongest possible case for its assigned position, drawing on a thorough understanding of the events leading to war, beginning primarily with the Seven Years’ War; the legal and constitutional disputes over the scope of Parliament’s authority in the colonies; and the philosophical and prudential arguments concerning human equality, natural rights, the consent of the governed, and the necessity of armed resistance.
A dedicated Canvas course provides students with access to primary-source documents, key interpretive questions, multiple-choice questions that reinforce their understanding of major events, arguments, and figures, a glossary of important events and concepts, and historical timelines tracing the development of the imperial crisis and the movement toward independence. These resources help students test their knowledge, identify connections among the central issues, and engage directly with the arguments of Patriots, Loyalists, British officials, political thinkers, and religious and civic leaders.
The Civic Thought and Statecraft Seminar is supported by the Jack Miller Center.
