IT IS not unusual, at times of economic crisis, that nations retreat inwards. They see others as rivals – sources of strife and aggression. They jealously guard their own patch, while the instinct of citizens and politicians is to batten down the hatches and become more inward looking, seeing solutions to all problems as being internal rather than external.
The trend towards narrow nationalism in Europe is worrying. Irish people speaking ill of the Germans, Germans speaking ill of the Greeks and so on. This vicious cycle needs to be tackled.
