The Big Picture
Vincent Boland: Big Mac peace theory bites the dust as more countries lose appetite for free trade
Once an article of faith for the great capitalist nations, free trade is becoming increasingly unpopular as countries turn to protectionism, something that will make us all poorer in the long run
The Big Mac theory of international relations no longer holds. In the mid-1990s the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that countries with McDonald’s restaurants tend not to go to war with each other. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine put paid to that notion. As the McDonald’s restaurants in Russia were rebranded last week under the name Vkusno & tochka, a short but symbolically resonant chapter in global affairs came to an end.
The withdrawal ...
