The Golden Arches are the famous symbol of McDonald's, a fast-food hamburger chain based in Chicago. They have also been seen more broadly as a symbol of capitalism or globalization, since they are one of the more prominent American corporations that have become global in their reach (along with Coca-Cola and Nike).

In his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree Thomas L. Friedman proposed The Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Resolution , observing that no two countries with a McDonald's franchise had ever gone to war with one another, a version of the democratic peace theory. Shortly after the book was published, the NATO bombing of Serbia proved an exception to the theory.