I believe that the main points of the article “A Century of Building Blocks for the New Europe” by Fritz Stern were signifying that if a nation does not understand their own history and if the nation is not aware of what has happened in its past, then that nation cannot in actuality grasp what it has to do to achieve it’s modern goals, as it never really understood what was wrong in the first place or in the past.
The article is stating that Europe has come a long way as far as its conduct in dealing with other nations goes. Before, it was normal for nations in Europe to be at war amongst each other, however, in modern Europe, this seems improbable now. Although the risks of war among nations seem to have become the least of the worries, new risks have started appearing, such as new forms of terrorism that could cause problems in Europe as we know it today, by upsetting the political order the nations follow.
The article by William Pfeff, “American in History: Realists Don’t’ Buy the Wilson Line” on the other hand focuses on making a point that America is without a doubt the most powerful country in the world today, however, the rest of the world is realizing the hegemonic powers America possesses and other nations are beginning to get anxious over this. As I understand it, the article is trying to make the point that although history is extremely important, according to many people, it can also be discouraging when it comes to forming new policies, and bringing fresh views of looking at the world today, or a nation today, and trying to improve. This article is stating more that history has, and can be terrible and instead of using old policies that have led to tragedy, perhaps it’s better to be optimistic enough to form completely new ones and not repeat mistakes that were made in the past.