Hi all...
Just a tiny matter to point out. Casus Belli translates into, literally, "cause of war". At the time in history that EU reflects, a CB was used and in many cases was used in a just manner, and vice-versa. Today, however, there's no place in the 21st Century for such a thing and there wasn't a place for it in the latter part of the 20th Century either. There are ofcourse exceptions. During the Cold War for example, even though neither the US or the Soviet Union declared any casus bellis toward each other there was still an understanding in place which kept the world in equilibrium. After the fall of the USSR this balance ceased to be and thus we see things happening all over the globe since that time, actions which the US would never have dreamed of trying to instigate, foment, catalyze or otgherwise act on, eg Bosnia and Kossovo.
Also, today a "casus belli" is rarely ever employed, with the exception of the occasional military dictatorship which pretends to be a republic, eg Turkey. They are one of the few states in the world to still employ casus bellis. They have at least 4, perhaps more, and mostly are against Greece, a state which is in the EU and which is prevented from exploiting its own natural resources in the Aegean on its own continental shelf as a result of one of these cb's. Why doesn't Greece simply ignore the barbaric threats that the Turks typically make against her, you ask? Because at the moment Turkey is still a strategically pivotal region in which the US has placed military bases. Turkey, despite it's true backwardness and despite the fact that they make threats against fellow NATO ally Greece, create general instability in the area, use torure methodically in their armed forces as well as their police force as part of routine training(no exaggeration there either; there was this 3 part documentary I saw once, called "The Roots of Evil" in which some Turkish soldiers who had deserted or otherwise left Turkey all talked at length about what goes on in the Turkish armed forces an gendarmerie and police force. One of them said "They will purposely torture anything there; be it a child, a woman, be they 6 years or yourger or 80 years or older, etc". Those in the armed forces are also made to pledge an oath which states that as soldiers in the armed forces of Turkey they promise to annihilate the whole of the Greek race. It was one of those very rare documentaries thatcome along once in a great while which are truly unique), and are even at this moment committing a genocide against the Kurds, who make up 20+ million of Turkey's 65+ million population(the Turks have not only made the teaching of the Kurdish language a significant crime but have also included any form of expression of Kurdish culture as such as well, including any Kurdish traditional dancing or traditional dress, etc). It's ttuly a shame that the US is so selective in where they use human rights as a pretext for intervention. Turkey is an abomination and grows to be more of one day by day. It's rather bizzare; so many Isralis, Jews, zionists, etc, have effectively used ad nauseum the example of the quote by Hitler when he said: "Who remembers the Armenians today?", this quote is used by them always in a context of why the Jewish Holocaust should never be forgotten. Yet today Israel has made a "good friend" out of Turkey and vice versa, knowing full well the Turks current atrocious behavior as well as their future expansionist plans.
Sorry, guess I got off track there a bit. When I saw the post about the meaning of "Casus Belli", being a former Poli Sci major I was more than happy to answer the ost. But when I got to thiniing about it, I realized that the only state I know of today which still uses casus bellis in abundance is Turkey, and thus I felt obliged to inform the reader about the state of affairs in Turkey as well. I hope anyone who might get perturbed by my getting a bit off topic can forgive me.