Some regions of the world are safer than ever before

[Jaga]

I could not find a thread about whether the world is a more dangerous place than before.
I think probably no, since there are no major wars

In Time magazine there is an article arguing that we don't have any major wars and conflicts in Western hemisphere.
There are still some unrest places - in Mexico and Guatemala, but nothing really confrontational

[pieter]

Dear Jaga,

We have to be careful to make conclusions. In the Western world there are tensions under the surface. Our societies are very polarized and vulnerable, because people are under tension, stressed, uncertain about the future, and because they have no idea which direction the world and the West in general are moving towards. It is true to that the European continent, Northern-America (Canada and the USA), New Zealand and Australia still are rather safe.

Western-Europe is changing with large non-Western communities from North-Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan and the Middle-East and next to that large communities from central and Eastern-Europe. People from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and guys from Albania, Macedonia, and Southern-America (the Surinamese and Dutch Antillian people). Walk around in Arnhem during the day and especially at night and you see a lot of non-Westerners at night. In a few decades the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France an, Sweden and Norways have drastically changed. The Netherlands is different today than it was in the sixties, seventies, eighties and even nineties.

We haven't had terrorist attacks like our neighbours Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France and Great-Britain, but they found out that there were terrorists heading for Schiphol Airport. Amsterdam is very crowded day and night with an international audience. It is an easy target if terrorists want to strike. The Central-station, the Metro (Subway), Schiphol nearby (it's Amsterdams Airport), and just streets, chanals, squares and other places where people gather. If a large terrorist attack hits the Netherlands, that will create huge tensions. In such a case everyhting Islamic or Muslim can be a target.

I hope that the world moves towards a more peaceful, moderate, sensible, civilized place, but we have to realize that the wars in Iraq, Syria and Libiya may lead to repercussions in Europe and the USA and Western targets elsewhere. Ad to that new tensions on the NATO and Western-European borders in general; The Norway-Russian Federation border, the Finland-Russian Federation border, the Estonian-Russian-, Latvian-Russian-, Lithuanian-Russian, Polish-Russian-, Latvian-Belarussian-, Lithuanian-Belarussian-, Polish-Ukrainian-, Ukrainian-Russian-, Romanian-Black Sea (Russian pressence), Bulgarian-Black Sea (Russian pressence), Bulgarian-Turkish (in the perspective of the tensions between Turkey and the West, Turkey and NATO, and Turkish new friendly relations with the Russian Federation), Georgian-Russian borders. And the large Russian presence in Syria. Next to that in Eastern-Asia the USA and the West in general has lost an allie in the Philippines. The Philippines formed a new alliance with China and announced friendly relations with the Russian Federation.

Cheers,
Pieter

P.S.- I hope that it is just just Cold War nr.2 today, because despite the tensions the Cold War was rather peaceful between 1946 and 1989.