|
|
Article: As Europe meets Asia: don't block free trade.(Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- March 2, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
WHEN George Orwell sat down to write "Nineteen Eighty-Four", he foresaw a world divided into three blocks: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia. These days diplomats and strategists also like to think in terms of three biggish clumps of economic and political power: North America, Europe and Asia. Whereas Orwell's vision was a nightmare of perpetual war, modern-day blockists take an optimistic view. Rather than a forest of national flags and a tangle of nation-states, how much tidier to have the world organised into three large and reasonably friendly power-blocks.
Block-think will take another stride forward in Bangkok on March 1st and 2nd. A meeting of 15 European leaders ...