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Flashpoints
Book

Flashpoints

The Emerging Crisis in Europe

George Friedman
Doubleday Broadway, 2015
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Overview
  • Insider's Take

Recommendation

Founder and former chairman of Stratfor – a leading private intelligence company – George Friedman is a media consultant in international geopolitics and author of the bestsellers The Next Decade and The Next 100 Years. Here, he covers what Europe has been, what Europe is now and what forces will shape Europe in the future. Writing pre-Brexit, Friedman discusses the euro, recent European wars, currency policy, refugees, the relationship between outlying England and the currency-united continent, and how economic power translates to political power. His focus is on the multiple “flashpoints”: those European border areas “where wars are fought.” getAbstract suggests this serious, scholarly overview to policy makers, executives, investors, NGO officials, students and professors seeking a logical, concise portrait of Europe.

Summary

Europe: A Peninsula of “Borderlands”

With its many nations, Europe is a peninsula of borderlands with multiple boundaries where language, culture and politics collide. More than 100 million people died from “war, genocide, purges, planned starvation,” and other causes in Europe between 1914 and 1945. Its geography of mountains, forests, plains, huge rivers and marshes makes the peninsula impossible to conquer. This means weaker nations endure. Yet across Europe’s history, the same war between the same enemies – such as today’s allies England and France – took place repeatedly. These wars barely altered national borders until the Soviet Union’s takeover of Eastern Europe after World War II.

The French-German borderlands run from the North Sea to the Alps. Turkey and Central Europe divide along the borderlands of the Balkans, which hold many conflict-sparking “flashpoints.” The Pyrenees divide Spain and Portugal from Europe’s mainland.

The great issue facing Europe is whether war as an instrument of state policy has become obsolete or could flare up again. At peace, Europe as a whole is a potent economic engine; its combined GDP exceeds that of...

About the Author

George Friedman is the founder and former chairman of Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) – a leading private intelligence firm. He wrote the bestsellers The Next Decade and The Next 100 Years and often comments on intelligence and international geopolitics for the media.

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