Greens Peace

Golf provides the world with many benefits, but could it be linked to global peacekeeping... I'm not convinced myself, however this article written by David Plotz of the New York Times explores an interesting and controversial new theory, have a look...

Since the rise of the nation-state, scholars and politicians have been struggling to answer the critical question of geopolitics: Why do some countries fight wars and others remain at peace? Yet to date, they have made little progress. Some contemporary thinkers, alarmed by Kosovo and Rwanda, predict that ethnic conflict will be the prime cause of war in the 21st century. Environmental scholars argue that scarce water and land will drive nations to battle. Students of the theory of interdemocratic peace contend that the structure of national government will be the driving factor. But policy makers should discard these dry, unsatisfying academic formulations and start paying attention to a much more powerful explanatory tool: golf.

Countries where golf is popular never fight other golfing nations -- and don't fight much at all -- while countries without golf are strikingly belligerent. Have you ever met an Afghan who golfs? Are there any Serbs on the P. G.A. tour?

I can hear the skeptical tennis fans out there asking, Where's the proof? Years of rigorous data collection and analysis -- or at least days of casual data massaging -- confirm the theory of greens peace. I consulted experts at the National Golf Foundation and Golf Digest and scoured the records of PlayGolfNow.com to determine which countries take their golf seriously and which are mere duffers. Because the only remotely reliable international golf statistic is the number of courses, I estimated golf's popularity in each country by calculating the ratio of golf courses to people. Using well-established scientific and astrological methods, I determined that a country needs one course per million people to count as a golf nation. (Fewer than one course per million suggests that golf is confined to rich folks and tourists.)

About 50 countries meet the one-per-million standard. Golf-mad New Zealand leads the world with 136 courses per million. The United States has about 60; France, 11; and Singapore, 6. Sri Lanka, by contrast, has 0.1; Peru 0.08; China 0.05.

I compared the golf stats with a list of the 300-odd major conflicts since World War II, and the evidence is irrefutable. Golfing nations haven't fought one another in 50-odd years, and they aren't very likely to fight one another today. Of the 27 current major armed conflicts, none match golfing nations. Take a quick spin around the globe. Every peaceful European country loves golf. But Russia, at war in Chechnya, doesn't hit the links. Non-golf Greece and non-golf Turkey have long warred over non-golf Cyprus. The former Yugoslavia has fragmented into five states. Only peaceful Slovenia swings the sticks.

Do India or Pakistan golf? Of course not. Algerians shoot one another; Moroccans next door shoot par. Peaceful Thailand is a regular at the range, but belligerent Myanmar isn't. Golf is sadly absent from Sierra Leone, Congo and Eritrea. The Middle East has hardly any courses; Iraqis still think a bunker is something you want to be in. Colombia and Peru have guerrilla wars but little golf. Venezuela has lots of golf but no war. Malaysia is crazy about the game, but Indonesia has been too busy brutalizing East Timor to pick it up. Taiwan loves golf; China doesn't -- which one of them invaded Tibet and India? Germany and Japan have become golf junkies since the Second World War ended; South Korea took up the game after the Korean War. Is it any accident they've remained at peace?

And the more golf you play, the more peaceful you are. Sweet-tempered nations like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Canada play the most golf. Of the 10 countries where golf is most popular, only the United States and Great Britain have a recent history of autonomous belligerence. But the United States has dispatched troops only against anti-golf tyrants: Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, Panama's Manuel Noriega, Somalia's Mohammed Aideed.

Two British conflicts do mar the record. The U.K. and Argentina warred over the Falkland Islands in 1982. (Argentina barely meets the one-per-million cutoff today, and I suspect that it wouldn't have had enough courses to qualify in 1982.) And Northern Ireland's Troubles set the golfing Irish against the golfing English. Apartheid-era South Africa also tarnishes the theory, with the white golfing minority violently oppressing the black, non-golfing majority.

Philosophers and social scientists will undoubtedly puzzle for decades over the association of golf and peace, but I have a few preliminary theories. Golf teaches players to be gentlemen. It relies on an honor system in which golfers police themselves. Golf has no physical violence, unlike basketball, soccer, football, rugby and so on. (Soccer fans riot, and at least one soccer match ignited a war. Have you ever heard of a golf riot?) Golf is not zero-sum. Your performance is independent of your opponent's, and nothing you can do to your opponent can improve your score. War, which is founded on violence, cheating and crushing your rival, is golf's antithesis.

Some cynics may complain that I have it backward: golf doesn't cause peace, peace causes golf. Golf, they may say, presumes a stable economic and political system. Golfers have to be relatively prosperous people with leisure time. They live in countries that can afford to set aside valuable land and water for golf courses. People who have the time and peace of mind to play golf aren't worrying about whether rioters are looting their stores or barbarians are swarming across the borders. (This argument parallels Thomas L. Friedman's "golden arches theory of conflict prevention," which holds that countries with McDonald's are too prosperous and complacent to wage war with one another.)

But the far-sighted people of South Korea, who know firsthand the benefits of golf, are conducting a perfect experiment to prove that it can pacify even the most benighted nation. According to recent news reports, South Korea's first significant capital investment in North Korea will include a multimillion-dollar resort with several golf courses to be built by the Hyundai Group. These will be North Korea's first courses, and they may be the best investment South Korea ever makes. What better way to end 50 years of strife than to teach North Koreans to make par, not war?