The end of the Thirty Years\u2019 War was not brought about by one treaty, but by several, of which the most important were signed at M\u00fcnster and Osnabr\u00fcck in October 1648. It is these treaties that historians refer to as the Peace of Westphalia. Contrary to legend, they did not make peace, as France and Spain kept fighting for 11 more years. And they certainly did not establish a world order based on modern states.<\/p>\n
What the Westphalian settlement did was to establish power-sharing arrangements between the emperor and the German princes, as well as between the rival religious groups, on the basis of limited and conditional rights. The peace as a whole was underpinned by mutual guarantees, as opposed to the third-party guarantees that had been the norm before.<\/p>\n
The Cold War ended when one side folded. That will not happen in our time. The democratic and authoritarian powers can fight for three or 30 years; neither side will win a definitive victory. Sooner or later there will have to be a compromise \u2014 in particular, a self-restraining commitment not to take full advantage of modern technology to hollow out each other\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
Our destination is 1648, not 1989 \u2014 a Cyber-Westphalia, not the fall of the Great Firewall of China. If we have the option to get there in three years, rather than in 30, we should take it.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a> (subscription).<\/p>\n What if it’s not the Second Cold War but a new Thirty Years’ War? Our time is more like the 17th century than the 20th: https:\/\/t.co\/MzJJgUgAgy<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/FiJB1E7oKK<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Niall Ferguson (@nfergus) May 26, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n