Eamonn has a piece on the Habermas-Derrida proposal which i think I agree with in spirit. Somehow, either because of disconnection, or because of my obsession with Bulgarian immigrants I seem to have missed out on this one. My sympathy is with the idea that we don't need more Europe vs America stuff. On the other hand I think I need to read these pieces in a quieter moment before I go much further:
Rainy Day visitors will need no reminding of where we stand on the call by Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida on 31 May to form a "core Europe" — the founding members of the EU plus Spain — to act as a counterweight to the USA. "Profoundly Atlanticist!" is the Rainy Day motto, which means an outright rejection of the Habermas-Derrida notion. In today's Süddeutsche Zeitung, Paul Kennedy, Director of the International Security Studies at Yale University, adds his considerable weight to the debate and rebuffs the Habermas-Derrida proposal in no uncertain terms.
Titled "Taten statt Worte" ("Deeds instead of words"), Kennedy says that the Habermas-Derrida "core-Europe" initiative is condemned to failure because neither Great Britain nor Spain will play ball, ditto possibly Italy and the Netherlands, and certainly the majority of the middle- and East European states. The latter, incidentally, didn't even earn as much as a mention in the Habermas-Derrida paper of 31 May. So much for their vision of Europe.
To counter those visions that have no basis in reality, Kennedy makes six suggestions for the establishment of a stronger Europe that would have a cohesive identity and would then enjoy respect on the world stage.........
Source: Eamonn's Rainy Day
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