Letter from the Chair
by David Goldman, Founder and Chair
I am thrilled and honored to welcome you to the 2025 FASPE Journal, including selected writings from the 2025 cohort of FASPE Fellows.
I
I write this as America and much of the world’s “post-war liberal order” is under assault—some might say “under siege.” Where does FASPE fit in? Is this a passing phase; will we look back in two years and say that we overreacted? Or might the next generations look back and ask why we didn’t do more to turn the tide?
FASPE is at the heart of the response, and you will see that fact in many of the thoughtful pieces included within this journal.
II
FASPE begins with appreciation of the power, the influence, of professionals. In fact, we define “professions” with reference to their impact and power to influence. Professionals do not have the luxury to claim banality, to hide under the moniker of “bystander.” They have influence by definition. They take responsibility by choice.
III
A fundamental and repeated tool of the autocrat is to challenge and discredit expertise, to sow distrust in traditional expressions of such expertise. Beginning with an examination of professionals under National Socialism, FASPE’s pedagogy has a bird’s eye view of just that tool, made use of then with such brilliant precision. We see it in attacks on the intelligentsia and academia. Given their power and influence, it is not surprising to see it in all attacks on the professions and their institutions.
And, it is no surprise that the core of the professions is now being assailed by would-be autocrats. We see it in offenses against science and science-based medicine, against the rule of law and ethical lawyering, against fact-based journalism. And on and on.
FASPE has a distinctive history-based view of the consequences of assaults on the professions.
IV
The response to efforts to sow distrust must be in deserved trustworthiness. That trustworthiness must be earned through expertise itself and through the ethical practice of the professions that embody system-wide expertise. That is FASPE’s mission—to imbue our professionals with the understanding of their responsibility to act ethically in their professions, to provide ethical leadership, to warrant trust. FASPE’s success is the antidote to threats to the professions, to attacks on expertise.
V
We must not lose sight of the reality (historically and now) that, even as the professions are assailed, we see professionals themselves, who are sadly too often complicit in these attacks. That seems inherently illogical. Yet history again displays the enormous role played by professionals in dismantling civil society. Why? It is because we are human. We are vulnerable to fail our better selves, our ethical selves, not necessarily out of conscious, intentional misbehavior but often due to common, quotidian motivations. FASPE’s mission is to imbue in our Fellows the reflexes of self-awareness and self-examination. Professionals must be aware of the consequences of actions stemming from simple human traits and goals like status, financial success, misguided loyalties and the thrall of being a clever problem-solver.
VI
I am proud of the 2025 cohort of Fellows. I am proud of the 1000 FASPE alumni, as so many of them are now playing front-row roles, using their professional expertise to rebuild trust and to counter the efforts to discredit them and their professions. They do this not out of partisanship or political activism. They act out of nonpartisan, apolitical ethical professionalism. I am proud that FASPE is at the heart of the response to this moment. I know that you will see that in the writings of the 2025 FASPE Fellows.
Again, is this a passing phase? Will we look back in two years and say that we overreacted? Or, might the next generations look back and ask why we didn’t do more to turn the tide? FASPE does not want to risk the latter. I hope that you see in this journal that FASPE Fellows are responding—they exercise their agency and power as they assert ethical leadership.