‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes’ is an insight generally attributed to Mark Twain. As the tragedy of Ukraine continues, it’s time for the history of a wily Statesman steering a rising power almost 150 years ago to rhyme with some much-needed hope today. In the famous Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Prussia proclaimed a new unified German Empire in January 1871. This new political and economic colossus was now the rising power in a world still largely shaped by the fractious jostling of Russia and Britain. While the former…

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