As an occasional lecturer on the abstruse topic of the efficacy of sanctions in conflict resolution, I find myself much more excited about the emergence in Vienna of a settlement of the Iranian nuclear stand-off than I am about a third Greek bailout — which left-wingers of the Syriza party regard as a vindictive form of sanctions regime designed to humiliate the government in Athens and remove its fiscal autonomy.
The only thing that’s clear about the Greek crisis is that it’s not over: impossible to see how it could be ‘over’ without the debt relief Prime Minister Tspiras asked for but the Germans adamantly refused. Even if the €68 billion on offer turns out to be sufficient to prevent further collapse of the economy and banking system, and Syriza is replaced in power by a more malleable ‘technocratic’ regime, the bitter aftertaste of this episode, and the irresolvable nature of eurozone tensions it has exposed, will linger until the next crisis blows up.
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