Commerce has changed the ethics of citizenship and the incentives for national service. America now buys private contractors - we used to call them mercenaries - to do the country's fighting.

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• Michael Ignatieff:

  A society is not a market. It is a political community.

• Michael Ignatieff:

  The legitimacy of coercive acts in a democracy arises from the process by which they are justified

• Michael Ignatieff:

  Ultimate authority in a global system remains with sovereigns. Governments will not have it any oth

• Michael Ignatieff:

  What makes the United Nations an appropriate source of legitimacy for intervention is that it is th

• Michael Ignatieff:

  Intellectuals are good at seeing the big picture. But they are not so good at process.

• Michael Ignatieff:

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• Michael Ignatieff:

  I've always thought Anne-Marie Slaughter would make a fantastic United States Senator or something.

• Michael Ignatieff:

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• Michael Ignatieff:

  Some of our finest leaders were not intellectuals at all, and I admire them enormously because they

• Michael Ignatieff:

  Loving a country is an act of the imagination.