Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Europe Looks Uneasily at I.M.F. as Greece Struggles

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/world/europe/25europe.html?hpw

Greece is currently struggling under a tremendous debt, and Europe faces the decision between handling the matter internally (within the euro zone), which would be a great burden to the more financially stable countries, or seeking recourse from the IMF, which is undesirable for its detrimental effect on European pride. The handling of the Greece situation is expected to set an important precedent for future problems like this.

Greece did not keep up its end of the economic bargain, so the other countries this affects now have to create a mechanism for enforcing consequences of this failure. Settling the issue amongst themselves may be more economically risky, but it would save them from having to ask for outside help or from allowing Greece to negotiate with the IMF which they resent for the strong influence the U.S. exerts upon the international organization. This seems to indicate that countries do have feelings, or at least that preferences and identities exert considerable influence on large political decisions, as constructivists claim, although other pressures threaten to exert more influence than the values these countries hold.

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