“No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other,” political commentator Thomas Friedman wrote in 1996. Friedman was making a clear connection between a more peaceful world and the growth of global capitalism. Of course, as Paul Musgrave wrote in a 2020 column, that theory turned out to be overly optimistic.
As the world has entered a new era of violent conflict, how are today’s experts thinking about peace? What replaced, in Musgrave’s words, the “glut of glib globalization cheerleading” of the 1990s? In this edition of Flash Points, experts weigh in on the nature of peace, who negotiates it, and who should be involved in the process, from Ukraine to the Middle East.
Indonesian Muslim demonstrators let loose doves as a symbol of peace in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Feb. 7, 2003. Choo Youn-Kong/AFP
Morality Is the Enemy of Peace
The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine can only end with deals that don’t satisfy anyone completely, FP’s Stephen M. Walt writes.
A story in the front page of a newspaper in Tehran covers the China-brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore ties on March 11, 2023. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
Democracies Aren’t the Peacemakers Anymore
How Washington can reclaim its diplomatic primacy in an authoritarian age, according to Chester Crocker.
Members of Women Wage Peace gather at the Jerusalem promenade overlooking the Old City on July 27, 2017, reciting a common secular prayer as they call on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to come together in dialogue.Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images
Men Alone Cannot Build a Durable Peace in the Middle East
Israeli and Palestinian women’s organizations have a rich history of political engagement, Xanthe Scharff writes.
Aid parcels are airdropped amid Israel’s war in Gaza, seen over the northern Gaza Strip on March 8.Photo by AFP
A Path Toward Peace Requires More U.S. Engagement, Not Less
Two senators on why the United States remains an essential partner in both Ukraine and the Middle East.
A pedestrian walks by a burned car in front of McDonald’s restaurant after unrest in downtown Belgrade on Feb. 22, 2008. NEMANJA KOSTIC/AFP via Getty Images
The Beautiful, Dumb Dream of McDonald’s Peace Theory
In the rich, lazy, and happy 1990s, Americans imagined a world that could be just like them, Paul Musgrave writes.