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 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.
Disclaimer: This Alert has been prepared and published for informational purposes only and is not offered, nor should be construed, as legal advice. For more information, please see the firm's full disclaimer.
