There’s a maxim that says “No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.” This so-called Golden Arches theory enjoyed a brief moment of prominence in the 1990s, got shaky after 9/11, and has been out-right assaulted by pundits and political theorists in the past ten years. It died it’s final death in October when McDonald’s Azerbaijan took public sides in the fight between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Here to walk us through the Golden Arches Theory and what the hell was wrong with all of us in the 1990s is Paul Musgrave. Musgrave is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His recent article in Foreign Policy about this topic is titled “The Beautiful, Dumb Dream of McDonald’s Peace Theory.”

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