The Divided West

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The normative authority of the United States lies in ruins, a judgment reflecting the political repercussions of the Iraq war. The decision to engage in this conflict without explicit Security Council backing has created a deep divide in the West, hindering coordinated responses to international terrorism. In this timely volume, Jürgen Habermas addresses the political events since September 11, 2001, and proposes a way to advance the political agenda beyond the contentious debates surrounding the war and the Bush Administration's coalition. Habermas emphasizes the importance of the Kantian project, which seeks to overcome the state of nature among states through the constitutionalization of international law. He presents a detailed model of transnational and supranational governance inspired by Kantian cosmopolitanism, contextualizing it within the evolution of international law towards a cosmopolitan constitutional order in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Additionally, he defends this model against the hegemonic liberal vision that underpins the current US administration's aggressive unilateralism. This work represents a significant contribution from one of today's leading political thinkers, making it essential reading for students and anyone interested in the future of European and international politics.