{"id":27781,"date":"2017-11-09T06:53:50","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T11:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27781"},"modified":"2017-11-09T06:53:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T11:53:50","slug":"where-are-europes-fault-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27781","title":{"rendered":"Where are Europe’s Fault Lines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where are Europe’s Fault Lines?<\/a><\/h3>\n

Beneath the surface of modern maps, numerous old fault lines still exist. A political earthquake or two might reveal the fractures for all to see.<\/i><\/p>\n

Correspondent Mark G. and I have long discussed the potential relevancy of old boundaries, alliances and structures in Europe’s future alignments.<\/b>Examples include the Holy Roman Empire<\/a> and the Hanseatic League<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

In the long view, Europe has cycled between periods of consolidation and fragmentation for two millennia,<\/b> starting with the Roman Empire and its dissolution. Various mass movements of tribes\/peoples led to new political structures and alliances, and a dizzying range of leaders rose to power and schemed their way through an equally dizzying array of wars, alliances and betrayals.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the era or players, security is a permanent priority:<\/b> this includes defensible borders, alliances to counter potential foes, treaties to end hostilities and whatever is necessary to secure access to resources and trade routes.<\/p>\n

When consolidation served these priorities, then fragmented polities either consolidated by choice or by conquest.<\/b> When smaller polities served these priorities, then imperial structures fragmented into naturally cohesive territories that were unified by language, culture and geography.<\/p>\n

Security is also economic, as people support structures that keep their bellies filled and enable social stability and mobility.<\/p>\n

For the sake of argument, let’s say that the European Union is the high water mark of consolidation, and the next phase is fragmentation.<\/b> Where are Europe’s natural fault lines? Much has changed in the past 600 years, but geography hasn’t changed, and that defines some basic security threats.<\/p>\n

German Army Prepares For “Break-Up Of European Union” Or Worse<\/a><\/p>\n

The Germans are making contingency plans for the collapse of Europe<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where are Europe’s Fault Lines? Beneath the surface of modern maps, numerous old fault lines still exist. A political earthquake or two might reveal the fractures for all to see. Correspondent Mark G. and I have long discussed the potential relevancy of old boundaries, alliances and structures in Europe’s future alignments.Examples include the Holy Roman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[127,279,281,284,1559,587],"class_list":["post-27781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-charles-hugh-smith","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-nation-state","tag-of-two-minds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27782,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27781\/revisions\/27782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}