Neoconservatism: Why We Need It
Cover
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| Author | Douglas Murray |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Conservatism |
| Publisher | Encounter Books |
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Publication date
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28 August 2006 |
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| Pages | 248 |
| ISBN | |
| Preceded by | Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas |
Neoconservatism: Why We Need It is a 2006 book by Douglas Murray, whose main aim is to describe how neoconservatism offers a coherent platform from which to tackle genocide, dictatorships and human rights abuses in the modern world. Murray also deals with how the terms 'neoconservativism' and 'neocon' are often both misunderstood and misrepresented, and how neoconservativism can play a progressive role in the context of modern British politics.
The book was described by the Social Affairs Unit as "a vigorous defence of the most controversial political philosophy of our age".
In a 2006 interview Murray explained that he had written the book "because I was increasingly frustrated that the debate in the West really had reached such a low ebb that most of our terms of definition even, have been lost; I mean the fact that the word 'neocon' which was and is a fairly nuanced term had become simply a term to denote somebody as a warmonger or a kind of ultra-hawk or the far, far right of the Republican party. I want to first of all explain what neocons are and what they aren't...what neoconservatism is and what it isn't...to show people really that far from being a sort of awful cult or clique...that neoconservatives like myself simply believe certain things and view the world in certain ways. I think many, many people share our opinion—it's not hard for people to see that it's not a prejudice to regard democracies and tyrannies as being on different moral planes".
The book is divided into four parts: Neoconservatism in theory; Neoconservatism in Practice; Relativism and the Iraq war; and Neoconservatism in America.
In 2006 Melanie Phillips summarised the book's main contentions as follows:
At the ConservativeHome website, Jeremy Brier wrote that "His confident and scholarly homage to neoconservatism is both an exhibition of and an argument for moral clarity" and "Murray also reserves some appropriately pointed words for the anti-war brigade: 'Its immoral members openly celebrate violent attacks on western society; its more moral members are simply incapable of coming up with any but the most hollow reasons for why such attacks are wrong'. The way out of this malaise and the denouement of Murray's thesis is not to revert to an old-fashioned conservatism that revels in 'archaism, cliquey anachronism and snobbery' but for Conservatives to embrace neoconservatism ideas and become a powerful voice for freedom, liberty and justice. In his final chapter, Murray sets out what a British, neoconservative landscape would look like, including slashed taxes, elite universities and an end to dealings with the European Courts or European Conventions on Human Rights. Most compellingly, he advocates our vital understanding that the UN should not be the 'parliament of the world', a theme which runs through this book", and Brier concludes: "This outstanding short book, always written with wit, elegance and flair, enables one not just to understand better the world in which we live, but to understand with a burning clarity our own duties and responsibilities within it".
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