To change the metaphor, the cold war was not a freezer, but an incubator of European cooperation. The era of the Westphalian nation-state is over in heartland Europe. A very peculiar form of governance is taking its place. It is not and never will be a homogenized federation, but it is already far more than a confederation. As evidence of this, some eighty per cent of governmental economic decisions are now made in Brussels rather than in the capitals of EU member states.
Meetings average once a week in Brussels or elsewhere for foreign-ministry political directors.
I'm talking, of course, about core Europe. I'm not talking about the Caucasus. There is a possibility, at least, of slowly integrating Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, and maybe eventually even Serbia into the European family. It's fuzzy, but expanding. In the decade since the end of the cold war, core Europe is already adding Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Estonia to the list.