Rewriting the rules: the consequences of TTIP on global trade

Summary:

Whenever the geopolitical impacts of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are discussed, the standard rhetoric tends to see the forming of a Western block, able to contribute to the establishment of a new global order or disorder, depending on which side one stands. On the one hand some see this as the beginning of the second Cold War and that the United States is trying to create a post-modern Iron Curtain vis-à-vis China. On the other hand, dedicated optimists assume that TTIP will be the start of an idyllic world, based on peace, wealth and cooperation, and consider any criticism as an attempt to jeopardize this. It goes without saying that both these views are misleading and politically twisted, as we live in a world with countless shades of grey.