Europe's Future

Danielle, Leigh, and Mia have both been talking of late about European integration and the prospects for future conflict within the European conflict. Mia and Leigh take a fairly optimistic view that Europe is no longer susceptible to the tragedies of the first part of the 20th century, while Danielle seems more skeptical. I would agree with Mia and Leigh that Europe is too traumatized by that experience to let that happen again on its own soil. Europe is too interdependent and interconnected through the EU and the Euro Zone  for war to become a realistic option. What I find more probable is European animosity toward the "other." You see this in the flesh in the hostility Turkish guest workers experience in countries like Germany and even Switzerland. As the rise of India, China, and other centers of economic power causes Europe's dominance to wane on the international scene, perhaps the continent as a whole will become more aggressive to preserve what remains of its global sphere of influence.

I will make a leap here and speculate that in the next 50 years Europe will be profoundly "over the hump," mostly concerned with its own internal affairs as Asia dominates the international scene. America, though not quite the dinosaur Europe will be, will be in a similarly introverted position. The continent will be in no condition to fight wars.