Paul Goble, originally on Window on Eurasia

Staunton, April 27 – When an individual, a leader or a country takes something personally rather than viewing it as being in the way of business, that makes the situation far more dangerous because the usual options others have for countering actions taken on the basis hard-headed calculation fall away.

Still worse, such shifts from a business-like approach to one driven by personal feelings mean not only that those who make it are likely to violate their own interests at every step of the way but also that anything anyone else does will be interpreted by them not as part of the ebb and flow of life but as a personal challenge – and behave even worse.