Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher and political theorist best known as a leading intellectual advocate of nationalism as a positive political principle. In his widely discussed book The Virtue of Nationalism, he defends an international order of independent nation-states against what he characterizes as imperial or universalist projects that seek to impose a single political and moral order across borders. He argues that the nation-state protects self-determination, collective loyalty, and the freedom of distinct peoples to govern themselves according to their own traditions, and he casts nationalism and imperialism as the two great rivals in Western political history.
Hazony's thought draws heavily on the Hebrew Bible and Jewish political tradition, which he presents as an early source of the idea of the bounded, self-governing nation. He is critical of Enlightenment liberalism and of political theories grounded in abstract universal reason and individual consent, favoring instead an approach rooted in inherited tradition, religion, family, and national community. In this vein he has articulated a form of conservatism that emphasizes empirical experience and transmitted custom over rationalist first principles, positioning himself within a tradition he associates with thinkers such as Edmund Burke.
Beyond his writing, Hazony has been influential as an organizer and institution-builder. He has led Israeli and international intellectual institutions and has helped convene conferences that brought together the loose movement often labeled national conservatism, which unites religious conservatives, sovereigntists, and critics of globalization and supranational governance. Through these efforts he has become a reference point for debates about the future of the political right in the United States, Europe, and Israel, offering a framework that champions national independence, cultural particularism, and skepticism toward transnational institutions.
Hazony's arguments have drawn both enthusiastic support and sharp criticism. Admirers credit him with giving coherent philosophical grounding to nationalist and sovereigntist politics, while critics contend that his sharp opposition between nationalism and imperialism oversimplifies history and that his defense of national particularism risks marginalizing minorities and liberal universal norms. Regardless of where one stands, he is widely recognized as one of the most prominent contemporary theorists attempting to rehabilitate nationalism and tradition-based conservatism as respectable intellectual positions.