Pax Europaea

Pax Europaea (English: "the European peace" – from the historic "Pax Romana"), is the period of relative peace experienced by Northern and Western Europe (including Greece and Turkey) in the period following World War II—often associated above all with the creation of the European Union (EU) and its predecessors. [cite book |last=Tsoukalis |first=Loukas |title= What Kind of Europe? |year= 2005|publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn= 978-0199279487] After the Cold War this peace was extended to most of Central and Eastern Europe, with the major exception of the former Yugoslavia (1990s).

Transatlantic cooperation and European integration was designed to maintain the fragile peace that was created in Europe. With the continent consistently falling into war over the past centuries the creation of the European Communities in the 1950s set to integrate its members to such an extend that war between them would be impossible. These Communities, and other organisations including NATO expanded to cover most of Western Europe, Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Although Eastern Europe remained under Soviet influence, they too experienced little conflict, with the exception of internal repression, until the 1990s when a series of wars in Yugoslavia broke out as the country disintegrated. The European Union was criticised for its inability to control the conflict, though the zone is now within its sphere of enlargement.

The EU is now the principal power in Europe: it covers 27 countries and has most of Eastern Europe seeking membership (ten eastern European countries joined during the 2000s). Further, most countries in Western Europe which remain outside are tied to the EU by economic agreements and treaties such as the European Economic Area. Within the zone of integration, there has been no conflict since 1945, making it the longest period of peace on the western European mainland since Pax Romana.

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