The arrest of the Rio Tinto executives in China last week is a reminder that "peace" in the business world is as elusive as it is in the diplomatic world. Competing strategic interests mean that co-operation and understanding between governments and business is still limited, which is unfortunate because this is precisely the area that needs most work at the moment.
The huge injection of public capital into the private sector to bail out industries such as banking and autos highlights the need for governmental understanding of just how to squeeze the best out of businesses.
Ironically, the one industry where this sort of co-operation is working is also the least peace-oriented. The biggest defence procurement programme in the world is currently the F35 Joint Strike Fighter and it has become a model in inter-governmental as well as government-to-business relations. The F35 has been so expensive to develop (more than $50 billion [Dh183bn]) that even the Pentagon realised the costs needed to be spread among several partners. As a result, there are nine nations involved and in return for upfront development money these countries will get some of the production work.
With 3,000 planes on order at a total cost of $300bn, this is a very sensible strategy as it spreads risk and also exposes the project to checks and balances as engineers from around the world scrutinise each other. Wouldn't it be fascinating if our governments could do the same for other projects. Let's start with things such as electricity grids or telecom networks where the potential benefits from inter-governmental and government-to-business co-operation could be huge.