This article is more than 12 years old

This article is more than 12 years old

It's known as the McDonald's theory of war, but has nothing to do with hand-to-hand combat over a bacon and egg McMuffin. No country with a McDonald's outlet, the theory contends, has ever gone to war with another.

The logic is thus: countries with middle classes large enough to sustain a McDonald's have reached a level of prosperity and global integration that makes warmongering risky and unpalatable to its people.

The Russia-Georgia conflict has finally blown this theory out of the water.

Thomas Friedman, who invented the theory in 1996, said people in McDonald's countries "don't like to fight wars. They like to wait in line for burgers."

The Caucasus conflict shows it's quite possible to do both.