By Emily Cummins
Political Science Professor David Green attempted to answer the question, "Has Europe solved the problem of war?" in the 34th Distinguished Faculty Lecture held during common hour at the Guthart Cultural Center Theater on Wednesday. His answer was a clear cut "it depends," but past that humorously indecisive response, Green outlined the major causal factors for the long peace of Europe.
Most people who attended already knew of his distinction because they had the pleasure of working with him or taking his classes. He thanked those who were present, and jokingly exclaimed he had no shout-outs for any third graders in Wasilla, Alaska. He then launched directly into the question.
Green explained that it is hard to determine an answer to this question without proper definitions. He then formed two new questions: "Has war disappeared from the place called Europe?" and "Has the European integration process been successful at stopping war in the European Union?"
To the first question he said that the answer was a very apparent "yes." "There has been no war on the continent since 1945 which is fairly amazing. Although, historically, 60 years is not a long time...it is still a stunning development," Green said.
To the second question, he gave a much more nuanced response. "Correlation does not imply causation. There have been a tremendous amount of causal factors." Those include the immense physical exhaustion of war, economic and social change, decolonization and the development of democracies.
Some other factors seemed to have one commonality: unity. Green spoke about how neighboring countries are no longer foreign to each other; citizens of Germany and citizens of Italy both consider themselves citizens of Europe. "The bitterness is gone," he said, and with that bitterness goes other concepts like fear and nationalism.
He concluded with the thought of this peace being sustainable, and how it is reasonable to assume so, but not certain. However, a single condition necessary in war is that there needs to be two sides in order to fight, which Green says is now hard to come by. In the questions that followed the lecture, he acknowledged the possibility of civil war, but said that it is not probable in the foreseeable future.
Most questions were yielded to faculty members and graduate students, but that did not reflect the majority of the audience. Professor Green's students who were present thoroughly enjoyed the speech.
"Everything Professor Green has to say is really compelling," sophomore Jim Ausanio said.
Even freshman from his cluster courses had been present. "I always learn something new from Professor Green. He makes you think about and analyze the world around you," Libby Golec said.
Overall Professor Green's fellow faculty members were impressed with his lecture, and students across the board enjoyed hearing something new from their admired professor.
Professor Greene delivers his distingushed lecture "Has Europe solved the problem of war?" in the Cultural Center Theatre on Wednesday. (Melissa Gerson)
"I'll give the answer to economics," said Martin Greenberg, founder and chairman of the board of Sterling Commodities Corporation. "There is no definitive answer-period." Greenberg shared his advice to students and retired his trading room jacket at 6