UK/Europe has no Ethic of Responsibility
Published in The Herald, March 5, and The Scotsman, March 6, 2025.
I’m frankly amazed at the hysteria engulfing the UK/European media after President Trump dared to resume diplomacy with Russia in an effort to end the horrifically destructive war in Ukraine. Even the Scottish administration is climbing on board, with Swinney suggesting that Scottish troops could be in Ukraine this year.
It got me thinking about Max Weber’s “ethic of responsibility”, which he articulated in his 1919 lecture, “Politics as a Vocation”, and it means taking responsibility for the unintended but foreseeable consequences of one’s actions. It’s in contrast to an “ethic of conviction,” the belief that one’s values justify one’s actions, regardless of the consequences.
Have Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz thought through the consequences of sending more money and weapons to Ukraine when their own economies and people are suffering to say nothing of Ukraine’s economy which is in ruins with hundreds of thousands dead? It hasn’t worked so far, has it? Can they not conceive of an alternative, like diplomacy?
Perhaps Europe can’t do diplomacy anymore because it has been shielded by the US for 80 years. Its skills have atrophied. Rather than try to resolve the issue through talking, it resorts to empty rhetoric, lectures and threats. The EU’s ‘top diplomat,’ Kaja Kallas, has said she sees no point in engaging in talks with Russia. Is she Anthony Blinken’s long lost twin?
European elites have abandoned the ethic of responsibility and have embraced the ethic of conviction. Their conviction is that Russia is “bad” so they must “stand with Ukraine” and shun Russia, irrespective of the situation on the ground and/or the consequences of prolonging the conflict. They cling to the fantasy that Ukraine can join NATO, which isn’t going to happen.
There is nothing to stop Sir Keir Starmer from flying to Washington and Moscow to engage in actual diplomacy rather than, as he did last week, beg for more money, weapons and a security guarantee because the UK military can’t possibly take on Russia. Maybe he didn’t hear President Trump and Vice President Vance say that Ukraine won’t join NATO and the US won’t provide security guarantees or deploy troops. In other words, Ukraine is now Europe’s problem, which terrifies European leaders.
On February 19th, Professor Jeffrey Sachs visited the European Parliament where he told a packed room that Europe needs to grow up, develop a foreign policy and negotiate with Russia.
You’re going to be living with Russia for a long time, so please negotiate with Russia... The bombast and the Russophobia is not serving your security at all.
We don’t live in a binary world of good and evil and if you believe we do, then there can never be compromise or understanding, just conflict.
If the UK/EU refuse to compromise with or show respect to Russia, a superpower who also happens to be their neighbour, they will lose relevance. If they continue to reject peace negotiations while hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainian and Russian men are dying, they deserve to lose relevance.
Eh? Swinney, FM of Scotland has no control over where 'Scottish' troops go and don't go and not one iota of control over anything MOD or military anything.
As for the war mongers, I am sick to my stomach about how ALL of these selifish greedy, scumbags in power are wrecking lives, playing with lives, standing by while innocent people are butchered and for why, it's all about money, resources, land and greed.
Sick of it, sick of seeing and hearing nasty shi*tebag tRump, he's no peace maker, none of them are and I am disgusted at Swinney. As FM Swinney is a sofft touch FFS and is proving himself to be a BritNat apologist. FFS.
Sorry but dealing with cr*p at home and this war mongering., these mass murderers playing with peoples' lives cr*p doesn't help.
Frankly all the show of support for Ukraine seems blind to the fact its best interests are served by ending the war which should and could have been avoided by the very thing that will end it - diplomacy. The US abandoned it decades ago and their poodle, the EU, apparently has followed suit. What is the point of prolonging the war to make the EU/U.K. feel good about itself (and mightily distract populations from failings at home) while more Ukrainians (and Russians) die. It will end in negotiations. Praise from the EU of Starmer is grotesque as it's harping back to the U.K's history of warmongering and imperialism. Support the Ukrainian people, not the war.
Meanwhile the US, having achieved its objectives in Europe, evidence it was never about defending Ukraine which they manoeuvred into this situation. The objectives of prizing the EU away from relations and trade with Russia, forcing dependency on the US and weakening the EU. Economic sanctions that were meant to weaken have in many ways strengthened the Russian economy but they have definitely harmed EU nations.
The US is done with Europe, it wants to pivot to China. The EU needs to decide where it pivots in an increasingly multipolar world.