American Values = European Values?

jasonlknoll European Politics, US Politics

In his thought-provoking article, “The Myth of Europe,” (Foreign Policy, Jan/Feb 2012) Gareth Harding discusses what ails the EU.  One of the big issues, he argues, is that it is difficult to answer the question, “What is a European?”  Part of the problem there, he writes, is that there are not any sort of defined values that Europeans can say, yes, these are European values.  In contrast to Europeans, however, we Americans apparently know what our values are and have even defined them in our founding documents (he gives the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as examples.  It is this part of his essay that I wish to address.

First, the authors of our founding documents (I’m going to add the Declaration of Independence to the two that Harding gives) were heavily influenced by European thinkers and documents.  John Locke argued in Two Treatises of Government (scroll down to Sec. 87) that the natural rights of man are life, liberty, and property.  Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Another European thinker, Baron de Montesquieu, influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution with his ideas on the separation of powers, from his work, The Spirit of Laws.  Finally, the influence of the English Bill of Rights can be seen in the U.S. Bill of Rights, most notably in the clauses dealing with fines and cruel or unusual punishment.

Second, Harding argues that American values are “clearly and succinctly defined,” yet he never tells us what they are; so, I took it upon myself to see if I could find out what they might be.  In googling the phrase “American values,” I got about 4.5 million results.  Many of the results were organizations claiming to represent and fight for  American values- Institute for American Values; American Values; The American Values Network; Center for American Values.  Interestingly enough, each of these organizations had different values.  Another result was an essay listing eighteen values.  Perhaps the most interesting of the results on the first page, however, was an essay by L. Robert Kohls titled, “Values Americans Live By.”  Kohls opens his essay with the following statement, “Most Americans would have a difficult time telling you, specifically, what the values are that Americans live by.”  Is it safe to conclude then, that even America does not have defined values?  And if that is the case, then does that mean that there quite possibly could be a Myth of America?

If America has values, as Harding states that it does, those values came from Europe, which means that Europe has values.  If Europe has values, then can we say that there is a European identity?  I’ll leave that for a future post.

Regards,

Jason

How I use Twitter

jasonlknoll Social Media

I just finished reading an article titled, “How Do You Actually Use Twitter?” and was inspired to let all one of you out there reading this how I use Twitter.  Before I continue, let me say that I came across this article in a tweet by @TweetGardenEU, a project from Vattel, designed to “[build and support] social media presence in Brussels policysphere.”

I actually didn’t have a Twitter account until this past September, when I was considering researching how political parties in the U.S. use Facebook and Twitter.  My sole purpose for using Twitter was that project, and I followed only political parties.  As it turned out, I was not that interested in the topic at the time and shifted my research to the reaction by the House and Senate Democrats to the New START treaty.  So, my venture into Twitter lasted about eight weeks.

Then in January, the State of the Union came along, and with it came Twitter.  One of the courses I teach is on government and politics, and so the SOTU naturally fits into that curriculum.  As I was gearing up for the SOTU, I noticed that the White House had a week’s worth of Twitter chats lined up.  I thought to myself, “I have Twitter account, I should try it,” and it’s been all downhill ever since.

As a high school teacher, I’ve noticed that my students are quite adept at using social media.  The problem for the vast majority of them is that they use it for, in the words of the article, “fluff.”  I like to joke with them that most of their tweets run along the lines of “Why doesn’t he/she like me? #mylifesucks.”  The White House Twitter chats were a perfect opportunity for me to show them a productive way of using social media.  Now, I bring Twitter into the classroom when I can to give them more examples of positive ways to use it.  For example, when I saw on the @WhiteHouseLive feed that President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron were going to give a briefing today, I told my students, and we watched it as a class.  Many of my students were surprised that I had an account and a few quickly followed me; however, when they realized how exactly I use Twitter, they dropped like the flies on my desk at the beginning of the school year.

I use Twitter as a constant news feed.  Almost all of the accounts I follow fall into a handful of categories: journalist, scholar/topic expert, think tank, news publication, political party, government official, and government institution.  As such the overwhelming majority of my tweets deal with IR and EU news.  The only celebrities I follow are Steve Martin and Bill Amend (creator of the best comic strip on the planet, FoxTrot).

In the past two months since the SOTU, I have become addicted to Twitter ( I could quit tomorrow though, really I could).  It is my connection to others with similar interests and gives me a chance to voice my opinion or just share an article I found interesting.  In that short period of time, I’ve been able to connect and tweet with professors, think tankers, and government officials from not only the U.S., but also Europe.  I’m not that concerned that I have only 43 followers (as of today); I just enjoy reading other people’s thoughts and getting mine out there.

And that is how I use Twitter.  How do you use it?

Regards,

Jason

Germany’s Opportunity

jasonlknoll European Politics

The past few years have been troublesome for Muslims in Europe.  In November of 2009, the Swiss passed a ban on minarets- the first major piece of Islamophobic legislation in Europe.  In late 2010, and into 2011, France was embroiled in a controversy over legislation that eventually banned the niqab and burqa.

Germany, a country whose Muslims (the majority of whom are Turks) comprise 5.0% of its population, has taken steps, however, to help its Muslim population.  In his article for Brookings, Jonathan Laurence wrote about a variety of “gestures of institutional inclusion” by the German government, including “local schools making space for Islam within their religious curriculum.”  He went on to discuss examples of states offering “Islamic instruction…for its Muslim public school students” as well as discussions by scholars and experts.  Unfortunately, Laurence did not mention if German non-Muslim students receive any sort of education about Islam (its beliefs, culture, rich history, etc.).  If German society is going to truly accept its Muslim population, they need to be educated.  Additionally, the roundtable discussions held by academics and organizations should be open to society at large; they should not be closed meetings.  The more Germans there are in engaged in constructive dialogue, the better for Germany.

Germany has also helped Muslim women with its “Saba program,” according to Soua Mekhennet.  The program “is designed for women between 18 and 35 who don’t have roots in Germany and seek a school diploma.  The fellows get money for school fees, child care, Metro tickets and coaching lessons.”  In giving these women a chance to improve their situation, they are also helping them improve their families’ situations.  That, in turn, will be beneficial for German society.

Both stories are examples of Germany seeing an opportunity to come to grips with a potentially divisive issue while working towards a positive solution.  Germany’s neighbors, France in particular, would do well to pay attention.

For more information on the dialogue between Muslims and the German government and Germany’s policies, you might want to take a look at the website for the German Islam Conference and the Migration and Integration page on the Ministry of the Interior website.

Regards,

Jason