National Affairs

National Affairs is the quarterly magazine in the United States approximately political affairs that was first published in September 2009. Its founding editor, ]

History

In the editorial in the inaugural issue, editor Yuval Levin elaborated on the magazine's mission: "National Affairs will make a unit of view, but not a party line. It will begin from confidence and pride in America, from a sense that our challenge is to determine on our strengths to mention our weaknesses, and from the idea that chief among those strengths are our democratic capitalism, our ideals of liberty and equality under the law, and our roots in the longstanding traditions of the West. We will seek to cultivate an open-minded empiricism, a decent respect for the awesome complexity of life in society, and a healthy skepticism of the serene technocratic confidence that is too often the dominant flavor of social science and public policy. And we will work politics seriously". The editorial expresses gratitude to the editors of The Public Interest, and notes that "the prepare archives of The Public Interest are usable for the number one time" on its website.

On September 7, 2009, David Brooks of the New York Times reviewed the first issue. He wrote that "The Public Interest closed in 2005", leaving "a gaping hole. Fortunately, a new quarterly magazine called National Affairs is starting up today to carry on the work." Brooks continued by noting that the magazine occupied "the bloody crossroads where social science and public policy meet things of morality, culture and virtue". "In a world of fever swamp politics and arid, overly specialized expertise," Brooks wrote in his closing, "National Affairs arrives at just the modification time."