https://www.scmp.com/rss/318415/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Over the past few years, months, weeks and days, the European Union has been busy. By far the most time-consuming issue, though, has been one that should never have taken so much attention to start with: the drama in and around Greece. Greece cheated its way into the EU (in 1981) and later, into the euro zone (2001), by cooking up budget and accounting data. Later, it belonged to a group of southern-tier countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, to some extent France, and the not-very-southern... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1829492/farce-trying-keep-greece-euro-zone?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1829492/farce-trying-keep-greece-euro-zone?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:45:00 +0000 For anyone who has been raised and lives in Germany, it is quite apparent that history is a difficult commodity. Germany was involved in the beginning of the first world war (unintentionally, whether sleepwalking or otherwise), and had a fundamental role in the outbreak of the second world war. Having also experienced a period of limited sovereignty (1949-1989), and unification (in 1990) that was as unexpected as were the accompanying concerns about a potential new assertiveness, Germany's... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1789479/sake-peace-leave-history-out-politics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1789479/sake-peace-leave-history-out-politics?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 May 2015 10:05:31 +0000 Following the broad, public and emotional debate about the candidates for membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, one may conclude that a new cold war is indeed dawning. Allegedly, this is between a declining superpower, the United States, and a rising future hegemon, China. While this way of framing the debate may serve the public interest in staged showdowns, the reality is far more sober. The Bretton Woods system included not only the tying of the US dollar to the gold... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1746086/western-members-asian-infrastructure-bank-can-help-keep?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1746086/western-members-asian-infrastructure-bank-can-help-keep?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2015 06:00:45 +0000