Russian TV is starting to spin a Putin back-down in the Ukraine. Channel surfing, I came cross a Russian TV story alluding to Russians that the revenues from the Russian gas pipelines across the Ukraine to the EU are a major lifeline of the Russian economy.
The mere threat of repeated sabotage of these gas pipelines to Western Europe are an easy way to hurt Russia if it overplays its hand. That was the round-about topic of the TV story.
Trade was a powerful force for peace and is a defence against war, as the great Manchester liberal Richard Cobden championed in mid-19th century.
Both Russia and China have much more to lose and much less to gain from war because of their extensive trade links with their neighbours and their former Cold War rivals, including with each other. China’s extensive trade and investment links with Taiwan are the best guarantee of peace between them.
As Joseph Schumpeter observed, when free trade prevails, “no class” gains from forcible expansion: “foreign raw materials and food stuffs are as accessible to each nation as though they were in its own territory”. Patrick McDonald recently called free trade the invisible hand of peace.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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