The specter of new conflict haunts memorials around World War I's end

In Britain, many people paused for two minutes of silence at 11 a.m., marking the moment the war ended in 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In France, President Emmanuel Macron attended the traditional ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe and lit the eternal flame at the memorial engraved with the words: “Here rests a French soldier who died for the nation.” In the wake of “the war to end all wars” and then WWII, a modern geopolitical system was forged with an aim to avert future conflicts, giving birth to the United Nations and the European Union.