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Papers by bernard J dobski

The Heritage Foundation, 2020

Dedication to America’s national form is not about the thoughtless valorizing of one’s own that i... more Dedication to America’s national form is not about the thoughtless valorizing of one’s own that is so often at the heart of uglier forms of nationalism. It is about an understanding of the critical role played by size, scope, and dimensionality in the creation of stable and secure communities, the emergence of a citizenry attached to the public good, the rule of reasoned law, the preservation of diversity and minorities, and political transparency and accountability, the very things that critics of the nation tacitly seek to preserve. Critics of the national form thus fail to appreciate the conditions necessary to preserve the rights they claim to cherish. They also fail to understand that the ability to grasp the virtues of the national form, defend their preservation, and respect their power does not require being a liberal or a conservative. Nor does it require a chauvinistic defense of America’s past, or even patriotism. It simply requires an openness to the axioms of the new sc...

The article presents an analysis of Thucydides\u27 statement on the causes of the Peloponnesian W... more The article presents an analysis of Thucydides\u27 statement on the causes of the Peloponnesian War between the two poles of Greek power, Athens and Sparta. The authors asserts that Thucydides\u27 account of Greek history and his statement highlight Greek confrontation with material necessity and the quest for immortality. It also examines Thucydides\u27 comment about the war\u27s greatness, Homer and the poets, the birth of justice and the Greek discovery of politics

Perspectives on Political Science, 2012

Abstract We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prom... more Abstract We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prompts thinking about the “Body Politic,” perhaps the most vivid and enduring image in speech describing political community ever proposed. Shakespeare's meditation on this image invites us to reflect on the conditions under which a body politic can be made whole; that the constitution of any formal commonwealth requires a self-conscious articulation of the body politic and that this articulation could not happen without the parts themselves being aware of their partial character within the whole political order. The need for the consent of those parts in the political order to which they would belong thus becomes suddenly more evident. Shakespeare's plays show that this need for consent always emerges within discrete political communities. As such, the constituent parts of those communities must grant consent, exercise and enjoy their rights, and participate in the whole within the limitations circumscribed by their political boundaries and borders. His dramatic works thus help us reconsider contemporary attacks on the nation-state and illuminate the body politic as an essential means for bringing into being the preconditions and framework required for healthy political life, including liberal democracy, to flourish.

The Heritage Foundation, 2020

We provide a concise review on recent theory advancements towards full-fledged (3+1)D dynamical d... more We provide a concise review on recent theory advancements towards full-fledged (3+1)D dynamical descriptions of relativistic nuclear collisions at finite baryon density. Heavy-ion collisions at different collision energies produce strongly-coupled matter and probe the QCD phase transition at the crossover, critical point, and first-order phase transition regions. Dynamical frameworks provide a quantitative tool to extract properties of hot QCD matter and map fireballs to the QCD phase diagram. Outstanding challenges are highlighted when confronting current theoretical frameworks with current and forthcoming experimental measurements from the RHIC beam energy scan programs.

Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body Politic Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin ... more Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body Politic Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin Gish Part One: The Heart Chapter 2: "The Very Heart of Loss": Love and Politics in Antony and Cleopatra Joseph Alulis Chapter 3: Julius Caesar: The Problem of Classical Republicanism Timothy Burns Chapter 4: Who is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? Nasser Behnegar Chapter 5: Love, Honor,and Community in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Pamela Jensen Part Two: The Limbs Chapter 6: At War 'Twixt Will and Will Not: Government, Marriage, and Grace in Measure for Measure Peter Meilaender Chapter 7: Trojan Horse or Troilus' Whore? Pandering Statecraft and Political Stagecraft in Troilus and Cressida Nalin Ranasinghe Chapter 8: Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece: Honor and Republicanism Robert Schaefer Chapter 9: Hotspur and Falstaff vs. The Politicians: Shakespeare's View of Honor Timothy Spiekerman Part Three: The Head Chapter 10: Shakespeare, Timon of...

Philosophy and Literature, 2018

Abstract:Thucydides's account of both the Spartan siege of Plataea and the efforts by its def... more Abstract:Thucydides's account of both the Spartan siege of Plataea and the efforts by its defenders to save themselves and escape their doomed city relates some of the most daring acts of his History, a work with no shortage of daring deeds. But reading this bracing account in light of the allegory of the cave and the divided line made famous in Plato's Republic, a reading that highlights the literary dimensions of the History, suggests why Thucydides thought he could reveal "the clear truth" about human things in a work exclusively dedicated to the practical, political events of a particular war.

Few characters in the classical world offer a more tempting comparison with our president than th... more Few characters in the classical world offer a more tempting comparison with our president than the Athenian demagogue Cleon. In post-Periclean Athens, Cleon was a leader and flatterer of the Athenian demos known for his “towering moral indignation and its accompanying boastfulness, bloodthirstiness, calumnies, lies, pretense, theft of the deeds of others, and cowardice.” Thucydides’ History, which offers the most extensive picture of Cleon’s political career, presents Periclean Athens as a moderate alternative to the dangerous democratic extremes posed by men like Cleon and his more talented and ambitious successor, Alcibiades. For Thucydides, the rhetoric of Periclean Athens corrects a vulgar nativism, to which men like Cleon and Trump are prone, and a rootless cosmopolitanism, which both men criticize. And yet, while Thucydides is critical of Cleon, his portrait of this demagogue also highlights the political virtues of Cleon’s defense of imperial Athens, one that remains rooted i...

work has no official title. I follow convention by referring to it as the History. All references... more work has no official title. I follow convention by referring to it as the History. All references to Thucydides' History are in standard book, chapter, and, where relevant, sentence, form. Translations are mine and based on the Jones and Powell Oxford Classical Text.

The Heritage Foundation, 2020

Dedication to America’s national form is not about the thoughtless valorizing of one’s own that i... more Dedication to America’s national form is not about the thoughtless valorizing of one’s own that is so often at the heart of uglier forms of nationalism. It is about an understanding of the critical role played by size, scope, and dimensionality in the creation of stable and secure communities, the emergence of a citizenry attached to the public good, the rule of reasoned law, the preservation of diversity and minorities, and political transparency and accountability, the very things that critics of the nation tacitly seek to preserve. Critics of the national form thus fail to appreciate the conditions necessary to preserve the rights they claim to cherish. They also fail to understand that the ability to grasp the virtues of the national form, defend their preservation, and respect their power does not require being a liberal or a conservative. Nor does it require a chauvinistic defense of America’s past, or even patriotism. It simply requires an openness to the axioms of the new sc...

The article presents an analysis of Thucydides\u27 statement on the causes of the Peloponnesian W... more The article presents an analysis of Thucydides\u27 statement on the causes of the Peloponnesian War between the two poles of Greek power, Athens and Sparta. The authors asserts that Thucydides\u27 account of Greek history and his statement highlight Greek confrontation with material necessity and the quest for immortality. It also examines Thucydides\u27 comment about the war\u27s greatness, Homer and the poets, the birth of justice and the Greek discovery of politics

Perspectives on Political Science, 2012

Abstract We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prom... more Abstract We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prompts thinking about the “Body Politic,” perhaps the most vivid and enduring image in speech describing political community ever proposed. Shakespeare's meditation on this image invites us to reflect on the conditions under which a body politic can be made whole; that the constitution of any formal commonwealth requires a self-conscious articulation of the body politic and that this articulation could not happen without the parts themselves being aware of their partial character within the whole political order. The need for the consent of those parts in the political order to which they would belong thus becomes suddenly more evident. Shakespeare's plays show that this need for consent always emerges within discrete political communities. As such, the constituent parts of those communities must grant consent, exercise and enjoy their rights, and participate in the whole within the limitations circumscribed by their political boundaries and borders. His dramatic works thus help us reconsider contemporary attacks on the nation-state and illuminate the body politic as an essential means for bringing into being the preconditions and framework required for healthy political life, including liberal democracy, to flourish.

The Heritage Foundation, 2020

We provide a concise review on recent theory advancements towards full-fledged (3+1)D dynamical d... more We provide a concise review on recent theory advancements towards full-fledged (3+1)D dynamical descriptions of relativistic nuclear collisions at finite baryon density. Heavy-ion collisions at different collision energies produce strongly-coupled matter and probe the QCD phase transition at the crossover, critical point, and first-order phase transition regions. Dynamical frameworks provide a quantitative tool to extract properties of hot QCD matter and map fireballs to the QCD phase diagram. Outstanding challenges are highlighted when confronting current theoretical frameworks with current and forthcoming experimental measurements from the RHIC beam energy scan programs.

Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body Politic Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin ... more Acknowledgments Preface Chapter 1: Shakespeare and the Body Politic Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin Gish Part One: The Heart Chapter 2: "The Very Heart of Loss": Love and Politics in Antony and Cleopatra Joseph Alulis Chapter 3: Julius Caesar: The Problem of Classical Republicanism Timothy Burns Chapter 4: Who is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? Nasser Behnegar Chapter 5: Love, Honor,and Community in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Pamela Jensen Part Two: The Limbs Chapter 6: At War 'Twixt Will and Will Not: Government, Marriage, and Grace in Measure for Measure Peter Meilaender Chapter 7: Trojan Horse or Troilus' Whore? Pandering Statecraft and Political Stagecraft in Troilus and Cressida Nalin Ranasinghe Chapter 8: Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece: Honor and Republicanism Robert Schaefer Chapter 9: Hotspur and Falstaff vs. The Politicians: Shakespeare's View of Honor Timothy Spiekerman Part Three: The Head Chapter 10: Shakespeare, Timon of...

Philosophy and Literature, 2018

Abstract:Thucydides's account of both the Spartan siege of Plataea and the efforts by its def... more Abstract:Thucydides's account of both the Spartan siege of Plataea and the efforts by its defenders to save themselves and escape their doomed city relates some of the most daring acts of his History, a work with no shortage of daring deeds. But reading this bracing account in light of the allegory of the cave and the divided line made famous in Plato's Republic, a reading that highlights the literary dimensions of the History, suggests why Thucydides thought he could reveal "the clear truth" about human things in a work exclusively dedicated to the practical, political events of a particular war.

Few characters in the classical world offer a more tempting comparison with our president than th... more Few characters in the classical world offer a more tempting comparison with our president than the Athenian demagogue Cleon. In post-Periclean Athens, Cleon was a leader and flatterer of the Athenian demos known for his “towering moral indignation and its accompanying boastfulness, bloodthirstiness, calumnies, lies, pretense, theft of the deeds of others, and cowardice.” Thucydides’ History, which offers the most extensive picture of Cleon’s political career, presents Periclean Athens as a moderate alternative to the dangerous democratic extremes posed by men like Cleon and his more talented and ambitious successor, Alcibiades. For Thucydides, the rhetoric of Periclean Athens corrects a vulgar nativism, to which men like Cleon and Trump are prone, and a rootless cosmopolitanism, which both men criticize. And yet, while Thucydides is critical of Cleon, his portrait of this demagogue also highlights the political virtues of Cleon’s defense of imperial Athens, one that remains rooted i...

work has no official title. I follow convention by referring to it as the History. All references... more work has no official title. I follow convention by referring to it as the History. All references to Thucydides' History are in standard book, chapter, and, where relevant, sentence, form. Translations are mine and based on the Jones and Powell Oxford Classical Text.

Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 41/4 (2012)

We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prompts think... more We argue for the relevance of a contemporary return to Shakespeare because his work prompts thinking about the "Body Politic," perhaps the most vivid and enduring image in speech describing political community ever proposed. Shakespeare's meditation on this image invites us to reflect on the conditions under which a body politic can be made whole; that the constitution of any formal commonwealth requires a self-conscious articulation of the body politic and that this articulation could not happen without the parts themselves being aware of their partial character within the whole political order. The need for the consent of those parts in the political order to which they would belong thus becomes suddenly more evident. Shakespeare's plays show that this need for consent always emerges within discrete political communities. As such, the constituent parts of those communities must grant consent, exercise and enjoy their rights, and participate in the whole within the limitations circumscribed by their political boundaries and borders. His dramatic works thus help us reconsider contemporary attacks on the nationstate and illuminate the body politic as an essential means for bringing into being the preconditions and framework required for healthy political life, including liberal democracy, to flourish.