sustainable global growth as international focus

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In his February, 2014, lecture to the SPD, Habermas said “...the fact that the European Commission abstained from setting guidelines for national climate protection objectives is one of the many fatal signs of a regression into the stronghold of the national state.”

But the Europe2020 platform, shaped in 2011, is full of guidelines, including specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, among other goals, “as part of a comprehensive global agreement.” The EU Commission has a detailed policy platform for a “Resource-efficient Europe” and “An industrial policy for the globalisation era.”

How does inter-regionality evolve?

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Given that internationalism has been an evident feature of global politics for a century, how does global change work?

That's a more-accessible question than one might expect. In March 2014, Robert O. Keohane (Professor of International Politics at Princeton) published an essay which implicitly, but definitely, serves the question: How does internationalism—or inter-regionality—evolve? His article is entitled “Contested Multilateralism.” The tediousness of his discussion (typified by his abstract below) implicitly dramatizes the state of play in international studies.

The challenge of fruitfully distributed authority

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The challenge in existing democracy never goes away, but it’s most prominent in constitutional processes: When does authority that is granted to intra-national regions undermine the potential effectiveness of governing trans-regional interests? This is a problem that Ukraine is presently grappling with.

fast times in Ukraine

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the Ukrainean Event as philosophical venue

On the PBS News Hour, Janusz Bugajski (Center for Strategic and International Studies) says what may seem obvious, but there’s an implicit, important philosophical point to be drawn for Habermasian discourse (after my quoting):

It’s a free choice...of every nation that emerged from the communist bloc to belong to the international organizations that best protect their security and that best ensure their prosperity and their development. And all the Central European countries, almost, have chosen to ally with the West, because the European Union and NATO provides the security, stability, sovereignty, and development. The Russian world, the Customs Union, the Eurasian Union, will be a source of instability, because Russia cannot provide that sort of security, integrity and international — and national independence.

Habermas and the international EU as it is

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Isn’t there already transnational democracy enough in the EU (pending economic recovery from recession)?

A fascinating comment about Germany in a recent NYTimes article on the Ukraine Event is that, in effect, the European Commission is a “partnership...hallowed in Berlin as the real...governing body of Europe.”

silent spring, fat city, and being here now

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Isn’t the notion of Earth Day precious?

It should be every day, of course. So, what does this mean for every day?

Do you nearly cringe at the triteness of such a question? Aren’t you tired of hearing about deathly pollution and extinction-level climate change?

It’s all not trite, of course, for kids (who will inherit the Earth), for health care professionals, educators, community developers, progressive activists, social entrepreneurs, policy wonks, and Earth scientists.

Indeed, a holism of relevance is greatly to The Point, not some redemptive tokenism of preciousness.

Healthy planet, healthy nations, healthy regions, healthy lives...

environmental engineering

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commitment to excellent policy tools can work

"As world leaders head to the UN Climate Summit in September, what's critical can't wait for theorists to create populist mandates. What we need is effective leadership."