Wow, I really liked that chapter. Friedman's logic in his "theory" was a little funny, and he recognizes this, but it was still interesting. His theory is that any two countries that are both involved in strong global supply chains such as Dell's will never go to war with each other. Although this statement is a bit farfetched, the ideas behind the statement were sound. Basically, the importance of these supply chains to the well-being of the people of a country will deter, but not prohibit, that country's government from seeking conflict with another country. This theory is actually an update on a previous theory of Friedman's shared in his other book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, called the McDonald's Theory of Conflict Prevention. This theory made me laugh when I read it, but it still made sense to me. I find it amazing that increases in technology, which help to build better supply chains such as Dell's, can actually deter war. It's nice to see some good once in a while.
But then there is the dark side of such increases in collaboration, as Friedman describes in the second part of this chapter, subtitled "Infosys Versus al-Qaeda." In this part, Friedman explains that as companies can use the technology of the flat world platform to collaborate with one another, set up supply chains and improve thier business, terrorists such as al-Qaeda can use the flat world platform to collaborate with one another and other terrorist groups, set up supply chains of weapons and bombs, and make life horrifying for the countries and groups that they attack. And due to the fact that we cannot control their use of the internet to spread their terrorist message, this kind of activity will likely continue.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I really liked this chapter as well. I think it shows that as countries becaome more economically stable they want to stay that way! Who knew that having a thriving economy was all we needed to bring about world peace! With al-Qaeda using the flat world platform I think their activities become more transparent. So we may not be able to stop them but we can watch closely!
Yes this chapter was awesome. I like the whole no war/supply chain theory. I posted on another blog that we should supply chain with the Middle East. However, I think if we were to do this, we should be very careful. While many of those people over there are good, there are still terrorists prevelant. We should have some type of critieria for partnering with them and closely monitor our ties with them. We should also supply chain with them for something that is VERY benefical to their economy, and if they were to blow us up, it would screw them up. Then the chances of terrorism will be lowered. At the same time, the "good" people will like us more.
Post a Comment