Conference Call with Francis Fukuyama - Identity & Politics of Resentment

World Affairs Councils of America
Cover to Cover Conference Call with Francis Fukuyama

Mr. Fukuyama will discuss his book

Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment

January 24, 2019
11:00 - 11:30 am
Free conference call event

Francis Fukuyama describes the demand for recognition of one’s identity as a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. The universal concepts such as human rights on which liberal democracy is based has been increasingly challenged by narrower forms of recognition based on nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, or gender, which have resulted in anti-immigrant populism, the upsurge of politicized Islam, the fractious “identity liberalism” of college campuses, and the emergence of white nationalism. Populist nationalism, said to be rooted in economic motivation, actually springs from the demand for recognition and therefore cannot simply be satisfied by economic means. The demand for identity cannot be transcended; we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy.

Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment is an urgent and necessary book—a sharp warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict.