Aristotle viewed the city (polis) as a natural human community whose highest purpose is to enable people to live well and cultivate virtue. In his Politics, he famously wrote that a city “comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life.” In other words, while people form cities to meet basic needs and security, a true city justifies itself by providing the conditions for a good life. This ancient perspective sees the city not merely as...

In December 2022, Greg Barton authored an article called "Is the Terrorism Threat Over?" following Australia's decision to downgrade the national terrorism threat level from "probable" to "possible". Barton concluded that "For the time being... police counterterrorism intelligence has constrained the capacity of both al-Qaeda and ISIS to project a threat into Australia." It's a moment of relief for Australians who, over the last two decades, have been spectators to a series of low-sophistication...