The One Area of World Politics Where Europe Excels

The ironic thing is that the one region of the globe that appears to have hit upon a peaceful formula for dealing with this problem is also the region responsible for most of the world’s ill-fitting borders in the first place — Europe. One the one hand, the past two decades have seen violence in former Yugoslavia and Ukraine in an effort to re-draw borders. On the other hand, Czechoslovakia broke up without a shot being fired, Montenegro became independent via a peaceful referendum, and as I type this, the campaign for Scottish independence in the run-up to a September referendum is kicking into high gear. Despite the relative decline of Europe as a model for political integration and economic growth, it’s still in the vanguard for how to peacefully manage an independence movement.