Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe : Verso : 9781844675203 : 1844675203 : 17 Jul 2005 : Shortly after the hostilities of the Iraq War were declared to have come to an end, the renowned philosopher Jurgen Habermas, with the endorsement of Jacques Derrida, published a manifesto invoking the notion of a ?core Europe,? distinct from both the British and the ?new? European candidates for EU membership, and defined above all by its secular, Enlightenment and social-democratic traditions. A key component of the manifesto was its insistence on the need for a counterweight to the perceived influence of the US, a theme that also resonates in recent discussions about the establishment of a European military force outside the command structures of NATO. On the same weekend in May 2003, a number of other leading intellectuals, among them Umberto Eco, Gianni Vattimo and Richard Rorty, published essays addressing these themes in major European newspapers, and almost immediately responses to these e