The Cold War rolls on...
"Europe's First War of the 21st Century"
http://aei.pitt.edu/9382/
The latest...Syria?
"At the international level Russia and China have consistently warned against intervention in Syria, as have the IBSA countries (India, Brazil and South Africa). All these powers felt that they were outmanoeuvred by the US and its European allies over Libya, and have treated Syria as a chance to reassert their influence. "
http://www.iss.europa.eu/fr/publications/detail-page/article/the-eu-and-syria-everything-but-force/
"The privatization and commercialization of war..."
"The return of privatisation in the new wars,
... Most of these wars are not fought by well-equipped armies but by the hastily recruited militias
of tribal chiefs or heads of clans, plus the armed followers of warlords and the like.
Above all, the weapons used in the new wars are cheap — small arms, automatic rifles, anti-personnel mines and machine guns mounted on pick-up trucks. Heavy weapons are only rarely used and, when they are, consist mostly of
remnants from the stockpiles of the Cold War.
That wars of this type can be fought — and even fought successfully — is mainly due to the fact that they are
not decided on the battlefield between two armies but drag on interminably in violence directed against the civilian population. Whereas in symmetrical conflict conditions the mere preparation for a war — to say nothing of waging one —
has become ever more expensive, the strategists of the new wars have succeeded in making direct warfare so cheap that it is once again a promising business.
http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_849_munkler.pdf
21st century conflicts in Europe itself...
2001 Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia
2002 Perejil Island crisis
2004 Unrest in Kosovo
2004 Adjara crisis
2007-present Civil war in Ingushetia
2008 Unrest in Kosovo
2008 War in South Ossetia
2009-present Insurgency in the North Caucasus
2011-present Kosovo-Serbia border clashes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_EuropeIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
