Source: Erich Follath in Der Spiegel (March 30):
There is no longer a Pax Americana or a world order decided in Washington. But one thing’s for sure: there’s no Pax Putina either. The largest country in the world will choke on its home-brewed problems….
After decades of impressive economic growth, cracks are also emerging in the Chinese economy where gaps between the poor and the rich, the city and the countryside are growing inexorably…. China has not yet become a new, attractive superpower….
In the long term, the days of empires based on coercion are over. Such regimes have become obsolete, even if here and there anomalies occur. The future belongs to voluntary integration. And that means that there is only one winner of the Crimea crisis: the European Union. With all its imperfections and problems, it is still the most attractive of all the unattractive models.
Eric Koch’s new book, New Beginnings, was launched on September 20. The book is available from 
