It just is not realistically possible for countries to be isolationist in this current era. Indeed, the entire world is interconnected by the Internet and other technologies.
Consider this fact that shows how the world is becoming smaller as we group together even more closely: 3,000 years ago there were about 600,000 independent world communities; now there are fewer than 200 such communities.
And when a disease breaks out like Ebola in Africa, with our means of transportation, such a disease can show up and infect people in distant other places.
Here in the United States, we drive automobiles imported from Europe and Asia.
McDonald’s serves nearly 70 million customers daily in 120 different countries.
Coca-Cola is served 1.7 billion times daily in essentially every country on Earth.
Starbucks, a relatively new company, is already present in more than 65 countries, and you even can order your nonfat decaf latte at the Great Wall of China.
Various countries currently are sitting on approximately 20,000 nuclear weapons — the equivalent of 200,000 Hiroshima bombs. That is difficult to ignore.
And over 100 million people were killed in 20th century wars alone. Plainly, countries continue to fight with each other around the world and are not keeping to themselves.
Given all of the inevitable interaction between countries, disputes unfortunately are inevitable. But hopefully whenever possible, these disputes can be negotiated successfully so that further wars do not erupt and doomsday bombs never drop again.
Eric Sinrod (@EricSinrod on Twitter) is of counsel in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP, where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes. You can read his professional biography here. To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please email him at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com with Subscribe in the Subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm or its individual partners.