Mearsheimer asserts there is essentially no difference between the nature and extent of international commerce in today's global economy and that of the per-1914 era; he then reasons that if extensive International commerce did not prevent World War I, "a highly interdependent world economy does not make great-power war more or less likely " and that we ultimately have no reason to think that the current wave of economic globalization will act as a significant constraint on the severity of conflict among the great powers in the years ahead