European Perspective and (Another) World War: Alarming Déjà Vu?

Through history and especially during WWII, Europe has been defining itself in opposition to the barbarian ‘Other’ that transgressed or undermined the rules and norms of the ‘civilized world,’ but still existed within the same physical space. The initially reluctant European reaction to acknowledge and efficiently react to this aggression 75 years ago appears as a déjà vu today, on the probable eve of WWIII, a war strategically initiated by Putin’s Russia with what appears to be an incurable syndrome of a former Superpower.  

The “new Europe,” made synonymous with the European Union, is struggling with its transnational cosmopolitan definition, an identity that has problematized the historically complicated relationships with its “Others” – how to perceive them, whether or not to integrate, include, and save them. The very idea of a duty to ‘save strangers’ lies in the heart of the cosmopolitan tradition.  Its two fundamental assumptions directly correspond to the imperative of invoking a duty when others are in need. Drawing heavily from the work of Kant, this project will attempt to answer the following questions: What are the responsibilities and duties of today’s cosmopolitan multicultural Europe with regard to the changing faces of Others? And, how much “the sins of the fathers,” largely committed during WWII, affect the dynamics of today’s European integration?