As the European Union struggles to find ways to survive, the Nobel Peace Prize committee awards the European Union the prize. Reuters reports that the EU has won the prize for 2012. Amazing.
It is likely the EU will survive for a few more years, in one form or another. It may, like the UN, survive for many years without accomplishing its stated purpose - namely, in the case of the UN, preserving peace.
The EU shares the purpose of peace, and intends to merge into a pan-European nation as well. To date the EU appears to have succeeded in preserving peace in Europe but is having difficulties in becoming one nation, a goal it will likely not achieve.
I say "appears" because the actual reason peace has persevered in Europe since 1945 (if one overlooks the genocide in the Balkans which were not a part of the EU) is quite different. The real reason Europe has experienced peace for almost 70 years is that the United States has provided its military security for all that period, at enormous cost.
In the absence of the U.S.'s heavy footprint in NATO during that period, it is likely that Joe Stalin's Soviet Union would have swallowed Europe whole, without chewing. There are times - when Europe is particularly petulant and ungrateful - that I wish we'd let it happen.
So the Nobel Peace Prize committee awards the EU a prize the U.S. earned via Pax Americana - typical.
