JRL NEWSWATCH: “How Globalization Rose and Fell With Nord Stream” – Foreign Policy: Elisabeth Braw
“The pipeline bringing Russian gas to Europe was once seen as a triumph for borderless business—but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine put an end to that fantasy.”
“… [O]n Sept. 5, [2022,] the company announced that the pipeline would remain closed indefinitely. Three weeks later … catastrophe had arrived. Someone had caused the gas-filled Nord Stream 1 and 2 to explode …. The explosions … rendered unusable … extraordinary pieces of infrastructure conceived of more than two decades earlier to link former antagonists and provide energy for a growing globalized economy. … Even to its detractors, globalization felt unstoppable. … [P]olitical leaders and businesspeople didn’t create globalization as a united effort … For often very different reasons, they simply contributed to the blend that was to become known as globalization … because suddenly opportunities arose … so attractive that not seizing them seemed foolish. … Now Russia is fighting a war in Ukraine, the United States and China are squabbling over … their coexistence, and there’s even fear of war involving China. Two new blocs are emerging … unlike the Cold War … [now] based less on military allegiance than … commercial fealty. Scores of Western companies … are swiftly trying to withdraw, at least partially, from the new front line. Even at the beginning of this decade, decision-makers were holding out hope that globalization would recover after it, too, was laid low by COVID-19. Instead, things got worse. Nord Stream 1 and 2 have come to symbolize misplaced hope in globalization. …”
Click here for: “How Globalization Rose and Fell With Nord Stream; The pipeline bringing Russian gas to Europe was once seen as a triumph for borderless business—but Putin’s invasion of Ukraine put an end to that fantasy.” – Foreign Policy: Elisabeth Braw