Quote Originally Posted by Husar
A thought just came to my mind, could it be that most of the people currently at war with each other are those who didn't suffer a lot in the two big world wars? It seems that however brutal those world wars were, they lead to a rather long-lasting peace in central europe(if we don't count the cold war as a war).
I think that argument doesn't hold water.

a) Europe hasn't been at war because of the Cold War and the consequences of it escalating. This is highlighted by Yugoslavia and what happened after the iron curtain came down... threat of Cold War diminished and wham you have conflict in European countries.

b) UK was in WWII and did suffer so I can't agree with the idea that the Troubles was because of the lack of UK's participation in WWII.

c) European countries while not warring with each other on the whole have certainly been involved in conflict outside of Europe. The last vestiges of colonialism in South East Asia and Africa... Vietnam with the French for instance. Indicates quite well that the European countries did not turn pacifist in Europe because of WWII... again they are not fighting on the whole because of the threat of Cold War.

d) While the stick of the cold war hanged over europe and colonialism faded from being vogue to last years fashion accessary... modern economics has shown that it is cheaper and more profitable to invest in a country rather then take it over. So the carrot that has appeared is that European countries can make a better profit by exploiting er outsourcing to sweatshops er investing in 3rd world countries rather then invading them.