By Mark John
(Reuters) – At a World Trade Organization event in September, former British prime minister Gordon Brown voiced out loud the fear that has quietly started to echo in the halls of power across Europe.
“Europe does not want to end up squeezed between America and China, either a Chinese colony or an American colony,” he said of a scenario in which rivalry between China and the United States could lead to a world of two hostile power axes.
“For even if Europe would always choose America, upon whom its security depends, it also knows that its lifeblood, far more so than for the USA, is trade,” added Brown, who since quitting UK politics has taken senior UN roles on global issues.
The fracturing of the rules and bonds tying the global economy together – so-called “geo-economic fragmentation” – seemed implausible only a few years ago. Now, it is a headline topic at the…
