From
time to time, I will bring to your attention some book that has greatly
influenced my thinking about the future of research universities. One of these is
The
Shield of Achilles, by Philip Bobbitt, Knopf, 2002. In the interests of full disclosure, I must state that Philip came to speak
several times to the planning group drafting our 2004 Plan.
Bobbitt is
the A. W Walker Centennial Chair of Constitutional Law at the University of Texas. He has also held academic
positions at Oxford(history) and
King's College
(nuclear strategy), and served in several senior positions on the National
Security Council. He brings this breadth of experience to bear in this book on
a deep analysis of the evolution of constitutional order - the compact between
the governors and the governed - from the early 1400's into the present.
Bobbitt is among those who believe that the constitutional arrangement called the
nation-state is dying . The social compact of the nation-state, in Bobbitt's terms, calls for the
state having as mission the improvement of the welfare of its people, and being
accorded in return the ability to call on its citizens for sacrifice to
preserve the state. Modern technologies, demographics, and markets have made
this compact increasingly difficult to sustain, however. For example, States
can no longer control their currencies, their economies, their borders, or
their cultures. This does not signal the end of the State, however, but rather
that a new constitutional order will appear - in fact, is already appearing.