The (Economic) Ties That Bind

The European Union was born out of the ashes of World War II. Its architects surmised that countries bound together by economic ties would be far less likely to go war with one another.

Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas to Western Europe. The sanctions announced by President Biden notably fail to target those exports. There are reports that Russia has not been ejected from SWIFT, the international financial transaction system, because doing so would hinder Russian petroleum exports at a time when Europe is already suffering from levels of inflation not seen for decades.

So Russia is more tightly integrated economically with Europe but the result has not been to foster peace. Instead trade has given Putin immunity from the sanctions that would do the most damage to the Russian (and European) economies. China put the lie to the belief that economic and political liberalization go hand in hand. Its new partner Russia has done the same for the hope that trade can foster peace and understanding.