{"id":3931,"date":"2003-03-08T16:55:27","date_gmt":"2003-03-08T21:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3931"},"modified":"2003-03-08T16:55:27","modified_gmt":"2003-03-08T21:55:27","slug":"what_we_have_he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/08\/what_we_have_he.html","title":{"rendered":"What we have here is a failure to communicate"},"content":{"rendered":"

This one will take some pondering, but I think this is one of the better explanations I’ve read for the rift between (roughly) the US and Europe over Iraq and UN resolutions: a difference of opinion as to what the purpose of the UN is for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the US (the author writes), the purpose of the UN is to ensure security. If it fails to do so, then it’s irrelevant at best, a danger itself at worst.<\/p>\n

For the Europeans, the purpose of the UN is to quash nationalism, the bane of European history culminating in two World Wars in the 20th Century. By that point of view, acting in national interests outside of or against the UN is the greatest danger.<\/p>\n

And they see the UN’s role now, in this dangerous time, as reining in America – not out of fundamental anti-Americanism but out of anti-nationalism. Sovereignty, in this way of looking at the UN’s purpose, must be constrained by transnational institutions. Unfettered sovereignty is dangerous, and the more powerful the country, the greater the danger. America is the most powerful country in the world, and its president is saying in so many words that America’s decisions regarding its security will not be limited by UN mandates and that in this matter we do not have to ask anyone’s permission to defend ourselves. This doesn’t sound unexceptionable to an American ear, but to a European who sees limiting nationalism as the UN’s sine qua non, it strikes at the heart of the entire UN project and all it embodies. America’s willingness to ignore UN wishes and UN procedures, if need be to protect itself, is not just pragmatism in this view. It’s almost blasphemous.<\/p>\n

\nI think the situation is a bit more complex than that. Various European countries — France, ironically, in particular — have been more than willing to act unilaterally and in their own national interests, over the last 50 years, with or without UN approval. And there are many in the US for whom the UN, as a proto-world government, is, in fact, a great hope against nationalism, including (or especially) American nationalism.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I think there’s a lot to chew on here.<\/p>\n

(via SDB<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This one will take some pondering, but I think this is one of the better explanations I’ve read for the rift between (roughly) the US and Europe over Iraq and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137447,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/08\/on-nationalism.html","url_meta":{"origin":3931,"position":0},"title":"On Nationalism","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Nov-18 2:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As pertinent today in principle as it was in 1945 when George Orwell first wrote it. Worthy of a read or re-read when suddenly \"nationalist\" has become a vogue among certain individuals:\u275d By \u2018nationalism\u2019 I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136144,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/23\/john-bolton-isnt-just-a-dolt-hes-a-danger.html","url_meta":{"origin":3931,"position":1},"title":"John Bolton isn’t just a dolt, he’s a danger","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Apr-18 7:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"At a time when we have no Secretary of State (and the State Dept. has been largely gutted and thrown to the curb anyway), this is the (hand-picked) person who's advising Trump on diplomacy and the dangers of the world. From 2013 until last month, Bolton was chairman of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/John-Bolton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134844,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/23\/look-truly-patriotic-act-allegiance.html","url_meta":{"origin":3931,"position":2},"title":"A look at a truly patriotic act of allegiance","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 23-Sep-17 1:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Immigrants being nationalized swear an oath of allegiance, not to the flag, not to the military, not to the national leader, not to a cultural group or historical victory or nationalist value set or symbol or even to a vague \"United States.\" They swear an oath to the US Constitution.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/naturalization-ceremony.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4131,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/02\/why_we_should.html","url_meta":{"origin":3931,"position":3},"title":"Why we should","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Feb-03 8:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"A remarkable column (in the Guardian!) by an avowed internationalist\/socialist and anti-American, about why she's in favor of war. And the way she addresses the anti-war arguments is ... very...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131027,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/08\/the-struck-down-texas-anti-abortion-laws-served-their-purpose-sort-of.html","url_meta":{"origin":3931,"position":4},"title":"The struck-down Texas anti-abortion laws served their purpose … sort of","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Jul-16 5:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Abortions in Texas in 2014 were, overall, down -- but precipitously down among Latina women, at least as far as official statistics go. 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While I can't find the source article (at least not in a language I read), this reference to a planned...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}