Unintended Consequences

07 Feb Unintended Consequences

Before the container was globally accepted, freight costs were so high that international trade was often not practical. The maiden voyage of the Ideal X and the crossing of the first international container ship, The American Racer, to Europe ten years later changed all that. This leap in global trade occurred because Malcom McLean broke the rules of the game in the shipping industry and redefined it as a business. Likewise, he could not have anticipated the collateral consequences the container would have for state sovereignty and global security. How the unprecedented economic integration it brought would facilitate the activities of non-state lawless actors like Al-Qaeda and ISIS.