In today's episode of the Global Wire Conversations Ralph is talking to Professor Steven B. Smith who is Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science and Professor of Philosophy at Yale University's Political Science Department. In our conversation we touch upon a wide range of issues, from contemporary Liberalism to the moral vision of Thomas Hobbes, as well as the intellectual roots of Fascism and Communism and whether liberal political systems can defend themselves.

Professor Smith's best-known publications include Hegel’s Critique of Liberalism (1989), Spinoza, Liberalism, and Jewish Identity (1997), Spinoza’s Book of Life (2003), Reading Leo Strauss (2006), and The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss (2009), Political Philosophy (2012), and Modernity and its Discontents (2016) which recently came out in paperback.