August 16, 2008Foreign AffairsFriedmangeopoliticsGeorgiahumourIndiainternational relationsmediaRussia

Pax Macdonaldica does not hold

Tom Friedman proven wrong…again

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

There’s good news and bad for Thomas Friedman. The good news is that one of his laws’ is perhaps true. The bad news is that another of his theories has been proven to be false, yet again.

The price of oil may have stalled Russia’s moves towards becoming a liberal democracy, thereby strengthening Mr Friedman’s point about petropolitics.

But after Georgia and Russia—which both have McDonald’s restaurants—went to war with each other last week, the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention doesn’t stand any more (via email from BOK). Did it ever?

Until our researchers or readers can tell us otherwise, we think that the Gopal Palpodi and the Ayurvedic Soap Theory of Conflict Prevention perform better in the real world than Mr Friedman’s thesis.



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