Dirk Leuffen and Hanno Degner see peace in Europe under threat

In the European debate over democracy and prosperity ensuring peace as an engine of European unity should not be forgotten, the political scientists of the University of Constance Dirk Leuffen and Hanno Degner warn in the liberal-conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung: "In the course of the efforts to overcome the sovereign debt crisis the success story of the European Union so far seems to have reached a turning point. The crisis poses at least two threats to peace in the Union. On the one hand the disintegration of the community menaces the institutional basis for peaceful cooperation. And on the other the limitations on democracy imposed by the globalised financial markets endanger peace. Already the internal protests are taking on an increasingly violent character, and it cannot be ruled out that a further weakening of democratic structures will promote instabilities and threaten inter-state peace. ... The 'salutary triad' of prosperity, democracy and peace has defined post-war Europe's success. Now the challenge is to preserve it."

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