Political Observer (Dec 2023)

The Pathways to the war in Europe | Os caminhos da guerra na Europa

  • Cristina Montalvão Sarmento

DOI
https://doi.org/10.59071/2795-4765.RPCP2023.19/pp.17-22
Journal volume & issue
no. 19

Abstract

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War broke out in Europe when Europeans were convinced of their lasting peace, based more on ideas than reality. Pacifism, the dream of Europeans in the 60s and 70s, was replaced by the violence of conflict. Analysts, historians, militaries, sociologists and other commentators on war have found it difficult to deal with the novelty of a nationalist war of defense in a global world. The global turn in political theory has been put to the test. In its analytical capacity, in the normative projection of the desired world in the face of the strategic and political reality of resources, multilateralism and the emergence of new global actors. The Wider West or the Global South are examples of emerging concepts whose substantive meaning has yet to be clarified. This issue of Political Observer aims to contribute to the debate, and provide a historical record of the emergence of the present of the war, sometimes contextualizing the past in order to clarify some of the vectors of the analyses that will follow in a future perceived as uncertain, for which this opening paper provides a first viewpoint sustained by some further readings mentioned at the end, which are essential to understanding the conflict.

Keywords