April 19—Last month, China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held a summit in Moscow, which included charting their collaboration over the next eight years on economic projects. Xi’s “Belt and Road” approach over the last ten years has shown country after country that nations can mutually benefit, if they simply choose projects that, in real physical economy terms, work. And since one nation doesn’t have to push down its neighbor in order to get ahead, room is created for defining pathways in which one nation is important, even vital, to its neighbor. China’s “shocking” diplomatic successes with the rapprochement of Saudi Arabia and Iran—with the radiating effects, notably in Syria and Yemen—turn out to be a normal byproduct of sane economics. It forces to the surface the realization that insane economics were at the root of the so-called intractable conflicts we’re accustomed to.
