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Comment by cjblomqvist | Hacker News Reader

The whole existence of EU is to prevent war between countries within the union through making all depend economically on each other. So far it's been quite successful (0 wars so far AFAIK), but of course it's quite early to say.

Many of the countries in EU have quite the war history with each other.

It's easy to forget that countries like Denmark and Sweden, France and Germany, etc etc used to be bitter enemies with so many conflicts and wars between them that it's difficult to keep track.

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Sure.

So in your opinion why is it that it worked the countries in Europe, but not for West vs China/Russia?

I think it takes more than money (i.e. culture). There's also a lot less integration between the West and Russia/China than the countries within the EU. In general, I think it takes a lot of time. Actually, the more I think about it the more I think it's quite complex, so too hard to go into all aspects here.

Then of course, as for China VS West, AFAIK there hasn't been any wars for almost a 100 years?

I also think expectations are set too high. Let's not perfect be the enemy of great - some tension is probably inevitable (Greece VS Germany, UK VS rest of the EU). But the trade war between China and the US (as media likes to put it, or at least did for a few years) is a lot (like, infinitely?) better than a real war.

> So in your opinion why is it that it worked the countries in Europe, but not for West vs China/Russia?

It would've absolutely worked for Russia, if the EU was offering it path to EU membership together with Ukraine instead of forcing Ukraine to choose between tighter economic/political integration between its two neighbors. Time for that was early 2000s, but Europe and USA chose otherwise.

Well, Russia isn't entitled to anything. As a European I wouldn't want corrupt countries like Ukraine and Russia accepted in without _deep_ reform.

Ok so why didn't it work for China then? What's your explanation for that?

> Well, Russia isn't entitled to anything. As a European I wouldn't want corrupt countries like Ukraine and Russia accepted in without _deep_ reform.

Well, Europe is not entitled to anything either. With that attitude we ended up where we are.

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