Sir, – Thank you for publishing the timely and wise column by Sir Ivor Roberts ("We should remember the lessons of how we stumbled into war in 1914", Opinion, February 25th).
I have watched – with sad fascination – as both Europe and the US have responded to the Great Recession of recent years with ill-chosen austerity measures. Although I am saddened, I am not surprised by the consequent widespread discontent expressed towards centre and left-centre governments by citizens throughout Europe, and the accompanying rise of growing nationalist sentiments. The Balkans continue to fester even as the powder keg of the Ukraine and the dense stumbles of Japan toward her neighbours pose obvious flashpoints of conflict.
Just as various militaries tend to concentrate on how to better fight the last war, so also does it seem that foreign policy elites often draw misleading conclusions about what behaviour to shun if we are to avoid the next war. I think the Russian-European situation has become unnecessarily more tense by the unwise expansion of Nato eastward. I hope the European Union’s efforts to achieve stability in the Ukraine bear fruit, but this cannot happen without respecting Russia’s legitimate interests. – Yours, etc,
GREG CUSACK,
NE 134th Place,
Portland, Oregon, US.