The long view

Here's an interesting article from Salon. Many European countries, as you probably know, have joined together as the European Union. This is a quasi-country, with one currency, one legislature, one executive, and no internal borders to travel. They even have a little army!

Of course, anyone vaguely familiar with European history would be amazed to find out that these coutries- which have been beating the crap out of each other for a few thousand years- had suddenly become the United States of Europe. They really haven't. But they have done something, resulting in an entity with 455 million people and a bigger economy than the USA. While it might not be a full fledged superpower yet, it's only 12 years old.