It is easy to imagine what the euro s failure would mean for the EU as a whole a disaster of historic proportions.

It is now easy to envisage extremist groups and individuals killing millions without government help

Developments in Greece or Hungary make it easy to imagine failed European states if the EU unravels.

It is easy to imagine situations in which flexibility can be increased by curtailing individual rights and abandoning pre established decision making rules.

MADRID WASHINGTON, DC As revolutionary change sweeps across the Arab world, it is easy to think that now is not the time to push for peace between Israel and Palestine.

China is much more than just a nation state, Buruma concludes. Taiwanese scholar Lee Hsiao feng has recently argued that the concept Chinese is a meaningless word that was fabricated to justify rule over minorities.

China is often thought to be governed by the Han majority.

Moreover, a marked lack of reconciliation and settlement of long standing disputes makes it all too easy to imagine not only a military incident involving two or more neighbors, but also the possibility that such an incident leads to something larger.

Queerer than we can suppose comes from J.B.S. Haldane, the famous biologist, who said, Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

But it is a mistake to think that China s manufacturing will remain in the doldrums.

It could easily fade away.

A newborn baby is liable to fall ill.

Musharraf was someone who was easy to hate across the border.

At first glance, Russia bears many of the hallmarks of a great power.

But it is wrong to think that massive accumulation of debt is a free lunch.

My title Queerer than we can suppose The strangeness of science.

Imagining Recession

The New Yorker is rather a sensitive environment, very easy for people to get their nose out of joint.

So the idea that what the world needs now is more fixed rules will not do.

Better to cut and run than stay and die, and who is to say that the result will embolden Taliban terrorists?

It is a mistake, however, to believe that extended deterrence depends on parity in numbers of nuclear weapons.

It is all too easy to criticize the specifics of the IMF plan.

It is easy to read the 1973 war only in retrospect.

It is easy to see how terrorism can lead to torture.

Because of you, she will have her own shop, her house will be repaired and she told us that with the money she will be making, she can easily pay for her children s education.

It was not easy for Mexico to become a State party.

With this engine of growth turned off, it is hard to see how the American economy will not suffer from a slowdown.

I know, easier said than done.

As one can imagine, the results of this System I coup d etat are not pretty.

Yet it would be a mistake to think that this bloodlust represents widespread sentiment among Iraqis.

However, as long as Tibet remains part of China, it is hard to see how its distinct cultural identity can survive.

Many pundits would have one believe that Ireland would have pulled through unscathed absent Germany s blundering statements.

Because it s very easy to fall into the trap that these states are absolute.

It is easy to understand why Germany would wish to prohibit such statements.

The confident side of the Chinese leadership s split personality is easy to understand.

But it is easy to overstate the significance of this case, too.

It used to be commonly thought that a home s value consists primarily in the structure, not in the land on which it sits.

It is hard to see Russia offering the world a new type of universalism, as it once did with communism.

Mind you, the idea that the ultra rich could easily solve poverty is stupefyingly naïve.

It s hard to imagine just how bad it can be. Try, though, to imagine this scenario

Or so we thought.

In doing so, we think that we are upholding our values.

It is not farfetched to imagine that Gbagbo hopes to convert his loss at the polls into a similar pact with Ouattara.

It may stretch credulity to think that a high growth economy like China might soon be facing similar problems.

For one thing, it is folly to think that more local currency debt eliminates the possibility of a financial crisis.