GUARDIAN EUROPE: To survive Russia’s neo-imperialism, Europe’s democracies must find a balance between their desire for peace and their own defence
In 2003, the philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida published a joint article in Germany’s and France’s leading newspapers. In it, they criticised the American invasion of Iraq and called on Europeans to “assume a reflexive distance from themselves”, in particular their imperialism and colonialism.
The pair’s criticism of George W Bush’s imperialism was justified; and their suggestion that Europe could lead the world towards a post-imperial future was a nice idea. Today, however, confronted with Russia’s genocidal invasion of Ukraine, the question is whether such a post-imperial world can be achieved through the means that the two philosophers proposed.
The Europe they imagined was a Europe of dialogue, of conversation and the embrace of differences. This is, certainly, a dignified idea. The problem is that it is powerless when one is faced with evil. » | Volodymyr Yermolenko * | Tuesday, October 17, 2023
* Volodymyr Yermolenko is a Ukrainian philosopher, journalist and writer. He is the president of PEN Ukraine.
