The European Free Speech Crisis

During Henry’s Kissinger’s famous “Year of Europe” speech in 1973, the then Assistant for National Security affairs observed that, “our values, our goals, and our basic interests are most closely identified with those of Europe.” Indeed, while perhaps Kissinger’s remarks were accurate when taken in the context of Soviet repression and a shared continental commitment to containing the threat, the transatlantic consensus he described has since frayed. Have some East Asian countries moved to take Europe’s place as free speech protectors? Last September, five armed British police officers stood in London’s Heathrow airport, waiting for the arrival of Graham Linehan’s...