The great industrialist Henry Ford once proclaimed "history is bunk." But when it comes to international business, this wisdom does not always prevail.
Take Japanese-Chinese relations, for example; the weight of history has played heavily in all dealings between the two nations in the past, all too often with negative consequences. It has been a relationship where Japan has not quite been able to live up to its political potential.
It is likewise between Russia and the West — especially Western Europe. There has been bad blood over the course of history, and Russia is again and again showing itself willing to use its newfound resource-based wealth and economic power against its European peers.