Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11
September 11 was the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. Yet even though the forces of Islamic totalitarianism are materially far weaker than the enemies we faced in World War II, and even though America’s military strength is unrivaled, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars became quagmires. U.S. combat forces are set to withdraw from both places, without victory in either. Jihadists have not only carried out murderous attacks around the world, they have weakened the West by battering a pillar of free societies: the secular principle of freedom of speech.
What went wrong after 9/11?
Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism: What Went Wrong After 9/11 (co-authored with Onkar Ghate) 2021 | Read the Preface to the Second Edition
What Justice Demands: America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
What is at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What does justice demand of us in this conflict? This book clarifies an intimidatingly complex issue—and upends conventional views about America’s stake in it.
In this book, Elan Journo explains the essential nature of the conflict, and what has fueled it for so long. What justice demands, he shows, is that we evaluate both adversaries—and America’s approach to the conflict—according to a universal moral ideal: individual liberty. From that secular moral framework, the book analyzes the conflict, examines major Palestinian grievances and Israel’s character as a nation, and explains what’s at stake for everyone who values human life, freedom, and progress.
What Justice Demands shows us why America should be strongly supportive of freedom and freedom-seekers—but, in this conflict and across the Middle East, it hasn’t been, much to our detriment. (Post Hill Press, 2018) | Read an excerpt
Winning the Unwinnable War
Eight years after 9/11 and in the shadow of two protracted U.S. military campaigns in the Middle East, the enemy is not only undefeated but emboldened and resurgent. What went wrong–and what should we do going forward?
Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism (editor and chief contributor) 2009 | Read the introduction
Contributed
Illuminating Ayn Rand: Essays from New Ideal, the Journal of the Ayn Rand Institute
Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are classics of American literature, taught in schools nationwide. Her philosophy of Objectivism has ignited an intellectual movement across the globe. Forty years after her death, Rand’s cultural presence continues to grow.
This book sheds light on some little-discussed yet interesting facets of Rand’s life and career. The essays collected here, presenting curated sidelights rather than a sustained narrative, are deeply sourced in the Ayn Rand Archives — the world’s most comprehensive repository of materials about Rand’s life and work — and many are accompanied by images of handwritten drafts, manuscripts and other documents from the Archives. Kindle and paperback.
A New Textbook of Americanism: The Politics of Ayn Rand
This book features previously unavailable material by Ayn Rand on her politics, along with contributions by other authors on the application of her ideas to today’s issues. Edited by Jonathan Hoenig, 2018 (contributor, Elan Journo) | Kindle and Paperback
Defending Free Speech
Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free and civilized society, yet this precious right is increasingly under attack today. Why is this happening? What can be done? Edited by Steve Simpson, 2016 (contributor, Elan Journo) | Kindle and Paperback | Read the introduction
Elan Journo 