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World War One had been in the making for years before the first shot was fired. That war, in turn, acted as a catalyst: afterwards, nothing was the same

Column

One rubicon after another

"Developments in the world suddenly gain a terrible momentum; developments that would otherwise take centuries seem to flash by like fleeting phantoms within months and weeks and then be completed."

These lines could have been written yesterday, or last week, about Russia's war against Ukraine and the rapid geopolitical changes this has unleashed.

In fact, it was the 19th century Swiss art historian Jacob Burckhardt, a professor at the University of Basel, who noted this in

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s, not those of EUobserver

Author Bio

Caroline de Gruyter is a correspondent and columnist for NRC Handelsblad, Foreign Policy and De Standaard. This piece is adapted from a column in De Standaard.

World War One had been in the making for years before the first shot was fired. That war, in turn, acted as a catalyst: afterwards, nothing was the same

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Author Bio

Caroline de Gruyter is a correspondent and columnist for NRC Handelsblad, Foreign Policy and De Standaard. This piece is adapted from a column in De Standaard.

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