“When a telegraph network spanned the globe, war would be no more, and cannonballs and mortars would be locked up in museums as curiosities and remnants of a barbarous age” —New York Herald, July 12, 1846

“Every message [the telegraph line connecting England to France] transmits makes stronger by one thread the band which war will have to cut” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, 1856

“The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention argues that no two countries that are both part of the same global supply chain will ever fight a war as long as they are each part of that supply chain.”  –Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat, 2005

“This generation will determine if the world can avoid the apocalypse that will come if the fear-ridden establishments continue to dominate global politics, motivated by terror, armed with nukes, and playing old but now far too dangerous games. This generation will not bypass existing institutions and methods: look at the record turnout in Iran and the massive mobilization of the young and minority vote in the US. But they will use technology to displace old modes and orders.” –Andrew Sullivan, “The Revolution Will Be Twittered,” June 13, 2009