Brexit

[Rudy Tamasz]

What about the possibility of the currency going kaput (because Greece lied to get into it; like it did with the Latin monetary union) and the rise of naitivism fueling outright conflict.



And 1871.
And 1848.
And 1803.
And 1792.
And 1756.
And 1740.
And 1727.

You can continue referring to the distant past. You don't want that distant past rearing its head again and again and again. The European Coal and Steel Community, then the European Economic Community and then the EU proper is precisely about clogging up the wheels of European "diplomacy" so that people in board rooms and great halls don't fling people's sons into each other at great speed and bloodshed.

Yeah, like the adages actually teach anybody anything. Especially effectively they deter bad guys from doing bad things.

You are also wrong on the rest of your points. From 1945 to 1991 Europe had no major wars simply because it was divided between the Western and Eastern blocs. Everybody knew that a wrong step would lead to a global war. That is why both sides tolerated the other side crushing dissent in their own ranks. Starting 1970s they used OSCE for easing tensions. When the Eastern bloc collapsed and EU had a chance to become a benevolent hegemon of Europe, it failed. It didn't do much to handle the Yugoslavian crisis. In fact, some EU members fanned the war by taking sides. The handling of the current refugee crisis was downright disastrous.