Europe - Land of peace or land of war?

In an interdependent world which has become highly vulnerable and disposes of destructive capabilities unheard of previously, war is prone of disaster. Peace is imperative. Much of human civilisation, however has been based on traditions cultivating attitudes of war. This is one of the reasons why efforts to create general and lasting peace in the world meet with all kinds of obstacles and have produced but limited success to this day. The peoples of Western Europe who, after two devastating fratricidal world wars in the first half of this century, appear to have managed to preserve peace at last, tend to view cases of brutal war and mass violence - such as in Bosnia - as products of ''stone age'' mentality. In this contact it must be remembered that war has been an integral part of European civilisation until very recently. Therefore, willingness to renounce use of armed force and to manage conflict in a civilised manner, cannot be taken for granted automatically but requires permanent effort. Values deeply ingrained in European history must be checked and, if found inadequate to current needs, revised. This is the message of the following reflections on Europe's traditional attitudes towards war by Sir Michael Howard Sir Michael Howard was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford from 1980-1989, and Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University from 1989-1993. He is President of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The essay was first presented in September 1996 at a Wilson Center Alumni Association Conference at Fontevraud (France).