The Ukraine war is currently not only tearing Ukrainians and Russians apart, it is also dividing the European continent, which has grown together again after the Cold War. How could hopes for greater prosperity be so disappointed after just a few decades and enemy images emerge that lead Europe and the entire world to the brink of nuclear war? Why did the EU and the United Nations fail and allow wars without declarations of war? Is it only today that the UN is so powerless or are we observing the disintegration of the current international order?