Habermas advises rearmament and integration of European defense

At 95, Habermas considers that the regulatory project of the West is about to end, with Trump’s return to power, and that the same could happen with NATO. This has been predicted in a Article published by ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’in which it displays massive criticisms of political leaders in Europe. It accuses them of not having negotiated enough with Russia before the invasion of Ukraine and then surrendering to kyiv’s war objectives. He criticizes that Europe has almost blindly assumed, although the signs clearly pointed out in a different direction, that the transatlantic alliance was suitable for the future.

“This political force (West under the leadership of the United States) has disintegrated with the recent inauguration of Donald Trump,” he sentences, and whip the failure of European unity at such an important moment. “It was an unforgivable political mistake that Germany repeatedly eludes the long challenge of strengthening the ability to action of the EU,” he laments, and warns that, in February 2022, “instead of a rhetoric of victory that waved the flag, a realistic reflection on the risks of a longer war would have been appropriate.”

Habermas attacks against the “incomprehensible myopia” of European politicians and in particular of the German government, which in his opinion has closed his eyes to political changes in the US, who already anticipated in recent years, throwing himself to militarily support Ukraine without having a long -term plan. “Helping Ukraine so that she was not razed by the Russian invasion was necessary,” writes Habermas, “but the EU was put in the hands of the kyiv government without guidance and without own objectives, based on the deceptive illusion of an intact alliance with Washington.”

The German philosopher, considered as the hegel of the twentieth century, recalls that Trump has demonstrated with his behavior features of a “psychopathological case” and predicts that his “policy disconnected from current norms and with surprising arbitrary decisions” will not marry the plans of other parts of the US administration. Even so, Habermas sees the west that we have known so far in the process of extinction, surpassed by a new “theocratic-authoritarian” system on which public opinion is still divided.

He points out that, after Trump’s first election in 2016, European governments should have anticipated what could happen. Censorship that, in this context, Germany has avoided again and again facing the challenge of strengthening the EU’s international ability to act, in a criticism that implicitly extends to the Olaf Scholz government and those of Angela Merkel. The most significant exponent of the Frankfurt Schoolrecognizes that support for kyiv was essential in February 2022, but instead of launching “war screams” and aspiring to a “victory” over Moscow, a “realistic reflection” on long -term risks would have been more appropriate.

Now, he advises European governments to act in accordance with the obvious breakdown of the international system and according to the loss of US hegemony that Trump’s position with respect to Russia represents in his opinion. The Ukraine War has accelerated the changes in the balance of international forces, in its opinion, marked by the rise of China and the aspirations of the intermediate powers. “EU member countries have to reinforce and unite their military forces, because if they will not have, in a geopolitically moving world and subject to centrifugal forces,” he recommends. The general objective of this rearmament, therefore, should not be so much the support to Ukraine and the “existentially reaffirmed” in a situation in which the US may no longer provide help in the future.

It also points out that this reaffirmation must occur under the requirement of a greater integration of the European defense. To fail, the consequences would be “disastrous,” he says, for both Germany and the EU.