Realistically, there was peace in Europe between the 'great' nations because of three factors - America, Russia and Nuclear Weapons. Lets face it, in the most basic terms it took a global war, followed by a period of 44 years where America and Russia sat on their respective halves.
I remember cheering when the Berlin Wall came down, thinking that we'd won. Looking back, i'm not sure exactly what I thought we'd won, or indeed avoided loosing

Given the removal of the communist system from one half of the continent, things have warmed up a little and suddenly the peoples of eastern europe find they can 'freely' express themselves, thats bound to cause a few issues.
But rolling forward to the here and now, one has to wonder how illusory this peace will prove to be. France paralysed by strikes and deporting eastern europeans, Germany's chancellor claiming that multi-culturalism is a failure, here in Britain, we're in debt (practically broke i believe), there are fears of a double recession, Greece, haven't heard much from them, have they rioted themselves out?
I appreciate that I have talked in generalities about the situation, for the nitpickers amongst you
That being said, these are interesting times here in that place across the channel. One could be forgiven for feeling that destiny is on the march again
