Do you think nations pursuing their own interest is natural? Or is global cooperation natural?

[Anonymous]

In my opinion, it's nations pursing their own interests. Historically, that is how it has been, even in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Nations pursuing their own interests is natural.

Global cooperation is natural.

[Soteris]

Oh, nations are selfish bastards. There is actually zero global cooperation that is not already grounded in selfish interests. I am not aware of a single exception to this. The way things are normally balanced is that both sides simply try to take as much as they can and the results are surprisingly a fair deal if both sides does a good job of being selfish.

But yeah, make no mistake in thinking otherwise. Nations only ever care about themselves and that is by design.

[strateguy632]

america first same as each other nation puts itself first.

[purplepoppy]

Both are natural because working with other nations is often is a nation's own interest. In today's world we now have global companies and they have their own interest at heart not the country they're registered in.

[OtterMan68]

No country is an island these days. Globalization has brought down global poverty rates and enriches more people than protectionism/nativism.

Trade is good for peace.

Exchange of ideas is good for progress.

China was a super-power before they went isolationist after they burned their treasure fleet. Then they became a third world country and was picked on by Japan, Europe, and the US.

N. Korea is a very closed society. How are they doing?

[OtterMan68]

having said that, it's in every country's national self interests not to become isolationist/protectionist/nativist

[msc545]

I'm not sure if nation's pursuing their own interests is natural, but that may not be the best metric. What produces the best outcomes would be would be cooperation for a variety of reasons and when Nations do cooperate or people cooperate, we find that there is a lot less conflict and a lot more productive development.

[jahaims]

Tribes of 150 people are natural