Open Societies and the Two Cultures Revisited

Lessons from the story of Trofim Lysenko

Image by beate bachmann from Pixabay

In a recent special report for the Council on Foreign Relations, Robert D. Blackwill and Philip Zelikow describe the contours of a deepening conflict between the US and China (The Council on Foreign Relations Special Report №90, February 2021, “The United States, China, and Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War by Robert D. Blackwill and Philip Zelikow).

Image by Pete 😀 from Pixabay

In his foreword to the report, Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations, writes that “Some will argue that the report’s recommendations do not go far enough, and some will argue the opposite, that the authors go too far.” However, the report’s central premise that the most significant risk the US now faces is from China reflects consensus sentiments from all sides of the US political spectrum. The conflict is between a free and democratic US and a China that has “doubled down on xenophobic nationalism and repression,” is intolerant, and that “crush[es] local governance and [is without] an effective rule of law.”

Blackwell and Zelikow focus on possible proximate causes for a deepening crisis and immediate steps the US…