North Bethesda Rotarian Claes Ryn is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the Catholic University of America (CUA), where he was also Chairman of his Department. He is also Distinguished Senior Scholar and Founding Director Emeritus at CUA’s Center for the Study of Statesmanship. His many books include Democracy and the Ethical Life, America the Virtuous, A Common Human Ground, and, most recently, The Failure of American Conservatism. He has lectured widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia, especially China, where he gave the Distinguished Foreign Scholar Lectures at Peking University in 2000. Three of his books have been published in translation in China. He was Chairman and co-founder of the National Humanities Institute, President and co-founder of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters, and President of the Philadelphia Society