[coldtea]

A strong external military force, along with the devastation of European countries with global ambitions in WWII (UK, French, Germany, and co), means there were neither resources nor reason for war in Europe for most of the 20th century. Heck, for most of that time Germany was still split in two.

USSRs occupation of the other half also kept "peace" there (and in conflict between the two sides would have escalated to a full global war, which was in nobody's interest).

Yugoslavia for example was only a state because the different nations were kept under the same rule. When that rule was gone, 60 years of "living together" didn't do anything to prevent ethnic tensions.

How things shape in 10 or 20 years is anybody's guess.

[tome]

> there were neither resources nor reason for war in Europe for most of the 20th century

The ambitions of the USSR were a reason for war and they had plenty of military resources.

[coldtea]

>The ambitions of the USSR were a reason for war and they had plenty of military resources.

Actually history has shown that they didn't.

[v_lisivka]

What? There was two invasions by USSR in Eastern Europe since WWII.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czecho...

2: http://www.war-memorial.net/Soviet-Invasion-of-Hungary-3.111

[tome]

Sorry, I've lost the thread of the argument.

The original claim was that "NATO has probably done just as much to insure peace inside it's countries as the EU has.". The counterpoint was that the Balkan wars invalidated this claim. My response was that a single war in 70 years is hardly evidence against the original claim.

What's your line of argument here?

[coldtea]

>Sorry, I've lost the thread of the argument.

I didn't respond to the "thread of the argument" above, I responded directly to the smaller point made in your comment.

My point regarding the whole argument is in my longer comment above.

[pas]

They had all the resources to wreak havoc, occupy and keep hundreds of millions in factory-feudalism. They would have drafted half the world to wage their wars if necessary.