The winner of the 2024 Emerging Public Intellectual (EPI) award is interested in understanding the complicated relationship between technology and society. Receiving this year’s award is American political scientist Dr. Jonathan Askonas.

The EPI award is intended to recognize and foster emerging talent—those working in the Christian academy who excel in both academic and public spheres and whose work impacts the common good. The award is hosted by Redeemer University and sponsored by Acton Institute, Cardus, the Center for Public Justice, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), the Henry Institute at Calvin University and the Mouw Institute for Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary

Askonas is an assistant professor of politics at the Catholic University of America, specializing in international relations (IR) and security studies. He lives in Washington, DC, where he and his family are part of a local Anglican church. He is also a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation.

It is a “huge honour” to win this award, says Askonas, and he looks forward to sharing his work on the intersection of politics and Christian life more widely. “I’m grateful for the platform and hope to use it to God’s glory.”

From international relations and military strategy to Christian philosophy and technological ethics, Askonas promises to serve the public square with cutting edge scholarship and historic Christian wisdom for years to come.

“While Askonas brings an impressive level of intellectual depth and rigour to all of his work, it’s his interdisciplinary breadth, agility and creativity that truly sets his writing portfolio apart,” says Rev. Dr. Matthew Kaemingk, director of the Mouw Institute of Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary, EPI selection committee member and winner of the 2019 EPI Award. “From international relations and military strategy to Christian philosophy and technological ethics, Askonas promises to serve the public square with cutting edge scholarship and historic Christian wisdom for years to come.”

Askonas is interested in exploring the “socially shaping effects” of technology, as well as how societies produce technology to meet their needs. In particular, he examines the way technology disrupts patterns in national security, institutions and culture. One example of this is his study of the modern republican tradition—how today’s technology-shaped institutions encourage or discourage liberal democracy. He has written about these matters in publications such as The New Atlantis, Foreign Policy, American Affairs, and Comment.

In much of his scholarship, he focuses on understanding and tracing the history of military technology and has recently completed two book manuscripts in this area. Many forms of modern technology, such as surveillance technology, have military roots, which is one of the many reasons Askonas finds this research important. One of these manuscripts is his PhD dissertation, titled A Muse of Fire: Why the U.S. Military Forgets What It Learns in War, that compares the US military’s ability to develop and absorb wartime innovations in Vietnam and Iraq. The other text, The Shot in the Dark: A History of the U.S. Army Asymmetric Warfare Group, written in collaboration with the US Army, details the history of a unit that helped the Army adapt their technology in the post-9/11 era. While Askonas admits that preventing and stopping violence often requires difficult compromises, he acknowledges that true peace will only ever come from the Lord.

[Peace on earth] will ultimately come from the redemptive Kingdom of God that the Holy Spirit will bring about on earth.

“[Peace on earth] will ultimately come from the redemptive Kingdom of God that the Holy Spirit will bring about on earth. Given that we are not in that age, you have to be willing to accept imperfect peace and imperfect justice.”

As a political scientist who is also Christian, he observes that IR and theology both study singular and concrete entities (i.e., the international system, God) over abstract concepts. Askonas also adds that many of the early thinkers in IR, such as Thomas Hobbes, are also theological figures. When it comes to discussions around world order, he explains that Christianity has been part of the conversation since the start.

“Traditionally, the question of who ordered the world was a philosophical and theological question, and the answer was that God orders the world … Most of [IR’s] interesting questions, most of its big theories, have direct theological corollaries that are just not thought of as such.”

Traditionally, the question of who ordered the world was a philosophical and theological question, and the answer was that God orders the world.

Askonas shares that “there’s a long way to go to fully appreciating the impacts of technological change on political and social questions.” Additionally, according to Askonas, political science has not been interested enough in how decision making is impacted by organizational structure and communications technology. He hopes to further pursue these topics over the course of his career.

All are invited to attend Askonas’ public lecture at Redeemer University on January 29, 2025.