Modern Political Climate
Despite vastly improved relations between Russia and the Western European states since the end of the cold war, recently tensions have risen over the spread of "Western" organisations, particularly the EU and NATO, eastwards into former USSR states.
Most European states have either joined, or stated their ambition to join, the European Union.
There are few conflicts within Europe, although there remain problems in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Northern Ireland in United Kingdom and the Basque Country in Spain.
According to 2007 data published in 2008 by Freedom House, the countries of Europe that cannot be classified liberal electoral democracies are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Russia.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Europe
Famous quotes containing the words modern, political and/or climate:
“... it must be obvious that in the agitation preceding the enactment of [protective] laws the zeal of the reformers would be second to the zeal of the highly paid night-workers who are anxious to hold their trade against an invasion of skilled women. To this sort of interference with her working life the modern woman can have but one attitude: I am not a child.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“The political horizon looks dark and lowering; but the people, under Providence, will set all right.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Ghosts, we hope, may be always with us—that is, never too far out of the reach of fancy. On the whole, it would seem they adapt themselves well, perhaps better than we do, to changing world conditions—they enlarge their domain, shift their hold on our nerves, and, dispossessed of one habitat, set up house in another. The universal battiness of our century looks like providing them with a propitious climate ...”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)