Wednesday, November 18, 2015

A Crisis Can Change Things Very Quickly

One of the ideas we have discussed here on the blog is that a crisis can cause change to take place more rapidly. An example of this happening in real time is the response to the recent attacks that have taken place in Paris. For the past several years, the US, Russia, the UK, and the EU have been at odds. Cooperation on anything has been very difficult. But suddenly, the crisis event in Paris has changed the narrative. This BRICSPOST article describes how UK Prime Minister Cameron now wants to find a way to compromise and work with Russia. Below are some quotes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday held talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in Turkey on  the sidelines of the G20 Summit where the bloc’s economic agenda has been overshadowed by discussions on fighting the Islamic State, the militant group that has taken responsibility for the deadly Paris attacks last week.
With recent events in Syria making Kremlin’s potential to help broker a political settlement to the crisis increasingly clear, Cameron on Monday said he is willing to make compromises” with the Russian leader.
“The disagreement has been that we think Assad should go at once and Russia obviously has taken a different view and we have to find a settlement where Assad leaves and there is a government that brings the country together. But we must not allow the gap there is between us to be the altar on which the country of Syria is slaughtered. That is the challenge. That is going to take compromises,” Cameron told British broadcaster BBC.
On September 30, Russia launched a campaign of air strikes against Islamic State and other militants in Syria.
In his meeting with Cameron in Turkey, Putin said the Paris attacks prove that Russia and the West “should have started uniting our efforts long ago”.
“We are very pleased that Britain has joined the Vienna group’s work. The latest tragic events, especially what happened in France, show that we simply have no choice but to join forces in fighting this evil, terrorism, and should have started uniting our efforts long ago,” a Kremlin statement quoted Putin as saying."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My added comments: Here we see how quickly attitudes can change when a crisis event takes place. This is a mini example of how we could see much more rapid changes in the global monetary system if there were an atmosphere of financial crisis. Some cynics believe that such events are actually planned in order to create an atmosphere in which the public is more willing to accept change. Others believe that crisis events unfold in a patterned way (in cycles) over time. Whatever causes a crisis, what we can say is that people are more likely to agree to compromise and change under crisis conditions than they are otherwise. Here we have a perfect real time example.



"The assault was just the latest sign that the strained and at times hostile relationship between the U.S. and Russia might now be thawing as antagonism gives way to common interests. And it's not just on the battlefield that the change seems apparent -- Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a markedly warmer exchange at the G20 in Turkey this week than in other recent encounters, and both sides indicated a willingness to do more to work together."

No comments:

Post a Comment