Europe from challenges of war towards challenges of peace

• Author: Faredin Shabani - Ibrahim Gashi
• Position: University of Prizren, Kosovo
• Pages: 224-229

Vol. 3 No. 3

November 2017

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

224

Europe from challenges of war towards challenges of peace

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Faredin Shabani

University of Prizren – Kosovo

Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Gashi

University of Pristina - Kosovo

Abstract

The end of the World War Second, did not bring peace and harmony among the peoples of

Europe and World as expected. Enmity of the war time created such a deep ditch, which

could not be overcome for a short time. What’s more, even among the allies-winners of the

war, friendship and cooperation did not last too long. Very soon, two-three years a er the end

of the war, Europe was separated by an iron courtain, as Winston Churchill, the British prime

minister would call it.

The shadow of this division, fi rst of all ideological, became known mostly in South Eastern

European countries. This region, for about half of a century was seized by stalinism and

democracy. Consequences of this division were not only political. Division produced economic

and development consequences, which, in one or many ways, even nowadays, hinder this

region in the European and Euro-Atlantic integration proceses.

Keywords: war, security, economy, integration, Europe, EU.

Introduction

The date of surrender of the Nazi Germany, on 7 May 1945, was the long-awaited

news for hundreds of millions of European residents, and for the whole freedom

loving Europe. It seemed that enthusiasm and optimism would last. Spontaneous

celebrations fi lled the roads and quartiers of European cities. Thus, an era of great

expectations was about to begin, because democracy prevailed over fascism, that the

great depression was only a remembrance and that prosperity was ahead.

However, the year 1945 marked the end of a great war and the begining of another

war. The Cold War of the two postwar super powers was not an episode like other

wars which have their beginning and their end, winner and loser (Calvocoressi, 1999,

3). As Thomas Hobbes would express himself long time ago: “ a war is not only the

ba le or the act of fi ghting but e segment of time during which, the volition to confront in the

ba le is very much expressed” (Hobbes, 1997, 191). Such like was in fact the Cold War.

The direct confrontation of the two main rivals did not happen, but in all parts of

the globe, the whole generations of young people grew up in fear and threat that a

great confrontation would happen. A pecularity of the Cold War was that both parties

excepted global distribution of the infl uence according to a new balance of forces.1

Traditional balance of power in the European continent had been broken. Great

1 In fact the Cold War derives from the rivalry between the British-American and Soviet rivals in

expanding their infl uence on specifi c states and governments in Europe, see: Walker, M. (1994). The

Cold War - A history, Hanry Holt & Company, New York, 11.