Bibliographic Information

The divided West

by Jürgen Habermas ; edited and translated by Ciaran Cronin

Polity, c2006

  • : pb

Other Title

Der gespaltene Westen

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Note

Originally published: Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, c2004

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Make no mistake, the normative authority of the United States of America lies in ruins. Such is the judgment of the most influential thinker in Europe today reflecting on the political repercussions of the war in Iraq. The decision to go to war in Iraq, without the explicit backing of a Security Council Resolution, opened up a deep fissure in the West which continues to divide erstwhile allies and to hinder the attempt to develop a coordinated response to the new threats posed by international terrorism. In this timely and important volume, Jurgen Habermas responds to the dramatic political events of the period since September 11, 2001, and maps out a way to move the political agenda forward, beyond the acrimonious debates that have pitched opponents of the war against the Bush Administration and its coalition of the willing. What is fundamentally at stake, argues Habermas, is the Kantian project of overcoming the state of nature between states through the constitutionalization of international law. Habermas develops a detailed multidimensional model of transnational and supranational governance inspired by Kantian cosmopolitanism, situates it in the context of the evolution of international law toward a cosmopolitan constitutional order during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and defends it against the new challenge posed by the hegemonic liberal vision underlying the aggressive unilateralism of the current US administration. The Divided West is a major intervention by one of the most highly regarded political thinkers of our time. It will be essential reading for students of sociology, politics, international relations, and international law, and it will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the current and future course of European and international politics.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface Author's Foreword Part I: After September 11 Chapter 1: Fundamentalism and Terror Chapter 2: Interpreting the Fall of a Monument Part II: The Voice of Europe in the Clamour of its Nations Chapter 3: February 15, or: What Binds Europeans Chapter 4: Core Europe as Counterpower? Follow-up Questions Chapter 5: The State of German-Polish Relations Chapter 6: Is the Development of a European Identity Necessary, and Is It Possible? Part III: Views on a Chaotic World Chapter 7: An Interview on War and Peace Part IV: The Kantian Project and the Divided West Chapter 8: Does the Constitutionalisation of International Law Still Have a Chance? Index

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