What is the Golden Arches peace theory? “No two countries with a McDonald’s have ever fought in a war. The only unambiguous Big Mac Attack took place in 1999, when NATO briefly bombed Yugoslavia” writes Steven Pinker in ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence In History And Its Causes‘.
This is an observation, but not a causal fact. What could explain this effect? “Broad historical changes have tilted financial incentives away from war and toward trade. Russett and Oneal found that it was not just the level of bilateral trade between the two nations in a pair that contributed to peace, but the dependence of each country on trade across the board: a country that is open to the global economy is less likely to find itself in a militarized dispute”
It thus seems that bringing countries or communities into the flow of world trade and increasing the dependency on exchange would be a great way to foster world peace. The dramatic increase in worldwide trade could be an explanation of the much more peaceful times we are enjoying since the end of WW2.
In the Collaborative Age, bringing people and communities into the worldwide exchange of ideas should also improve peace and understanding. We then need to be particularly wary of those communities that close themselves to the outside world.
