International Trade, E-Collaboration and World Peace

Anthropological evidence suggests that the human species has evolved what could be called a "trading instinct" over millions of years of Darwinian adaptation, where trade acts as a social catalyst and thus as a suppressor of violent conflict among trading groups. Yet, the geographical and cultural separation between modern groups engaged in international trade makes it difficult for the trading instinct to achieve its evolutionarily adaptive goal. The trading instinct notion implies that trade has a social as well as a utilitarian purpose. The social purpose is to curb violence among trading groups. Without enough natural human interaction it is unlikely that the trading instinct will achieve its social purpose, even though it may achieve its utilitarian one, namely of economically beneficial international exchange of needed goods or services. Since the more face-to-face like a communication medium is, the higher its degree of naturalness, non-face-to-face international trade interactions may benefit the least from its potential social benefits. This is arguably a problematic state of affairs, since it appears that the greatest potential for conflict in modern society is between groups that are located in different countries. E-collaboration tools that increase the naturalness of electronic trade interactions are presented as enablers of international trade that can go some way toward solving this problem