Suchergebnisse

The message of Habermas's "Manifesto"(2003) that the citizens of Europe need to become aware of their common politics in which a "European identity" would enable the EU to confront the US with an alternative vision & concept of world order is questioned in terms of whether or not the Manifesto actually represents a European "counterhegemonic project." Habermas was convinced that the moment was a good historical point for concentrating the elements of European identity into a political force supporting international politics of the governments of Germany, France & Belgium within the EU, but the two parallel aims of Europe as a profitable junior partner to the US, & constructing a strong European competitor are contradictory. The critiques of the Manifesto as a document of "European anti-Americanism" and a contribution to the split of Europe established the process that finally decided the fate of the Franco-German initiative which proposed to lead the EU into opposition against US policy on Iraq & to realize projects of political integration. The main lesson that may be learned from Habermas' failed Manifesto is that the field of international politics is not the appropriate place for rallying critical intellectuals against American imperialism. Progressive movements need to be addressed as potential actors for the construction of a counter-hegemony which is not based on competition between two neoliberal variants of capitalism, but upon the program of a real alternative to American & European leg of global capitalism, namely a new socialist project. References. J. Harwell