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Well, you didn't see a war between Germany and England though... Bosnia, Iraq etc were not part of the EU. The point was to create a closely integrated Europe s
by themihai 10y ago
Well, you didn't see a war between Germany and England though... Bosnia, Iraq etc were not part of the EU. The point was to create a closely integrated Europe so that war would become unthinkable just like a war between England and Scotland is unthinkable now.
Of course it was nationalism which caused conflicts in Europe. Did democracy prevent Russia to invade Ukraine?
UK simply decided the European project is not worth it and they are better off trading as an independent country than part of a european family. This may prove true but we will have to see and for how long.
If the EU reforms and sticks together I fail to see how leaving it is a good choice. I hope this will make EU stronger and more competitive as UK will force their hand to do more.
- dustinmoris 10y agoBased on statistics I would say that any war between the UK and Germany is more likely to be inflicted by Germany... just saying...
- themihai 10y agoDoes it matter who started? I don't think blaming one state or another helps much once the nukes take off.
- nkrisc 10y agoRussia isn't exactly democratic.
- macintux 10y ago> Did democracy prevent Russia to invade Ukraine? Russian democracy is a charade at this point.
- cmdkeen 10y agoI'd argue we didn't see a war between Germany and England, or Britain as we are these days, as we were occupying them in the aftermath until 1949 and maintained a British Army of the Rhine there until 1994. The Allies also established a new Constitution and political consensus that is vehemently anti-war - witness German reluctance to be involved in fighting in recent NATO and other coalition conflicts. There's also the small matter that the Russians were effectively still occupying half of Germany until the late 1980s. The origins of the EU came that trade prevents wars. The Democratic Peace Thesis likes to discount all sorts of countries as "not a democracy", a good example of No True Scotsman. Given we're seeing Turkey rapidly heading towards dictatorship, Hungary's far right leadership despite being an EU member, and all the problems the US is going through it is a salient reminder that just because you are a democracy doesn't mean you stay one. One of the pretty unique things about the UK in the EU is its political history - France is on its 5th Republic, Germany has only been reunified within living memory, Italy's system is from 1946 etc. You can see how relatively new, potentially fragile systems of Government might want to prevent resurgences of problems, especially under the shadow of the Cold War. Edit to add: Oh - there's also this thing called NATO as well. When two countries are in a military alliance they also tend to avoid going to war with each other. NATO is of course also the body that intervened far more decisively than the EU in the Bosnian and Kosovan Wars - those pesky examples of genocide in Europe that people overlook about how fantastic and peaceful we are as a continent.
- themihai 10y agoA military alliance (such NATO) alone cannot prevent war between its members. The recent events(Trump threating to pull U.S. support or Turkey's behaviour) proves how fragile a such alliance is. I wouldn't be surprised to see Turkey leaving NATO and join an alliance with Russia. If a member decides that the alliance doesn't serve its national interests anymore nothing can stop it from leaving and joining a different alliance. The point of EU was to make european interests indistingusible from national interests. It seems it hit a brick wall on UK.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago>or Britain as we are these day // United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the country's designation I gather, at least based on the title of the head of state it is.