War and Armed conflict

Differentiated integration, which brings some member states together on common means and strategies, appears to be the only route possible to circumvent obstructions to a Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) for the 28 member states.

Both perpetrators and forms of violence change. States are no longer the central referents of contemporary conflicts. We can no longer understand them as the outcome of a linear history starting from tribal societies and leading to Western political structures.

Turkish leaders would like to turn their country into the leader of the Middle East. However, they are in competition with another of the region’s key players: Iran.

Displaced peoples, insecurity over food and sanitation, economic devastation, worsening community tensions: the Central African Republic is going through what must be the worst crisis in its history.

The strategic position and economic value of hundreds of small islands in the South China Sea have provoked claims of sovereignty from most of the neighboring states.

The term “strategy” goes back to Greek antiquity and its meaning has evolved over time. Although today the term is bandied about and employed in all contexts, in the past, attempts to define it have been made by the greatest military thinkers.

The First World War gave rise to the emergence of the discipline of international relations, but it was the Second World War and the Cold War that fostered its development.

In 1914 the firepower of modern weaponry produced a massacre. To limit losses, the warring parties dug themselves into trenches. The French army was forced to innovate.

The First World War had tragic consequences for the Middle-East. It led to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire and the balkanization of the region. 

Montesquieu’s theory of “doux commerce” has never ceased to be debated.

The increasing militarism prior to the Great War had its roots in national beliefs and ideologies constructed during the 19^th century in European countries.

The Paris Peace Conference of 1919-1920 marked the end of the First World War whose purpose was to establish the conditions for enduring, if not perpetual peace.

Beginning in the 1970s, becoming solidified with the “peace dividends” in the 1990s and finally accelerated by the financial crisis of 2008, Europe’s demilitarization is undeniable.

For the Turks, the Treaty of Sèvres symbolizes the liquidation of the Empire and the carving up of Turkey by outside forces.

The First World War helped redefine the notion of strategy, giving it a political dimension that it previously lacked.

There are some disturbing similarities between present-day Asia and pre-1914 Europe.

The Great War has shaped many 20^th century practices and norms.