We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.

I don't believe that one should have one-size-fits-all moral rules for international political action.

But I'm English. We don't do uplifting.

The different American experience of the 20th Century is crucial because the lesson of the century for Europe, which essentially is that the human condition is tragic, led it to have a build a welfare system and a set of laws and social arrangements that are more prophylactic than idealistic. It's not about building perfect futures; it's about preventing terrible pasts. I think that is something that Europeans in the second half of the 20th century knew in their bones and Americans never did, and it's one of the big differences between the two Western cultures.

I do think we're on the edge of a terrifying world, and that many young people know that but don't know how to talk about it.

If words fall into disrepair, what will substitute? They are all we have

After 1945 what happened was rather the opposite: with one major exception boundaries stayed broadly intact and people were moved instead.