Ryan T. Anderson, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, delivered the Calihan Lecture at the Acton Institute’s "Crisis of Liberty in the West" conference in London on December 1, 2016. Sir Roger Scruton's presentation may be read here. Declan Ganley's presentation may be read here. A video of the full conference is available online here. – Ed.

Any lecture on the Crisis of Liberty in the West faces at least one serious limitation: time. Time is in short supply – as is liberty, for the crisis of liberty in the West is expansive, multi-faceted, and more deeply rooted than many of our political slogans suggest.

Passing through airport security to fly here for this conference served as one reminder of the threat radical Islamic terrorism poses to liberty.

Bankrupt nations such as Greece, and cities such as Detroit, offer vivid examples of the role that government debt plays in fettering freedom, for ourselves and our children.

Governments that regulate more aspects of our lives, frequently through unaccountable bureaucrats – be they at the European Union, the United Nations, or the United States’ Department of Health and Human Services – also threaten our liberty.

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