Back in 1996, Thomas “The Mustache of Pablum” Friedman had a theory:

So I’ve had this thesis for a long time and came here to Hamburger University at McDonald’s headquarters to finally test it out. The thesis is this: No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.

The McDonald’s folks confirmed it for me. I feared the exception would be the Falklands war, but Argentina didn’t get its first McDonald’s until 1986, four years after that war with Britain. Civil wars don’t count: McDonald’s in Moscow delivered burgers to both sides in the fight between pro-and anti-Yeltsin forces in 1993.

You know, you would do more for the betterment of humanity, if you flipped burgers, as opposed to writing OP/EDs for the Times.

H/T Matthew Yglesias, who gives us this picture of the Tbilisi McDonalds: