Metaphorical use of "the cockpit" [closed]

The original meaning of cockpit per the OED was:

A pit or enclosed area in which game-cocks are set to fight for sport; a place constructed for cock-fighting.

Any other use of cockpit is in some sense metaphorical of that - in the case of its nautical and aeronautical use, it refers to the cramped space - one supposes.

But in the use you report the sense of a 'fighting space' is retained.

In the decades prior to the first world war, the Balkans was often described as the cockpit of Europe because of the confused rivalries and tentative alliances which existed. Ultimately it provided the spark which gave rise to the conflagration.