MH17 and the diplomacy of business going Dutch

MH17 has left Dutch society in a state of mid-summer anaesthesia. Exactly 25 years after the end of the Cold War, and 20 years after the Srebrenica genocide that left more than 8,000 dead in a UN ‘safe area’ under Dutch command, the shooting down of KLM double tagged Malaysian Airlines MH17 is another defining moment for the Netherlands’ external relations.

This time it is all about changing relations with Russia, Europe’s geographically nearest BRIC and a major trading partner. The tr...