Interconnectedness

In the West we are very dependent on imported food and imported energy. Energy powers nearly everything from water supplies, banking, sewers, traffic lights, the internet etc..  If we were suddenly denied these then society would be very different. We would adapt as we always do. 

I suspect there is an unwritten thing like MAD (mutually assured destruction) for nuclear weapons that if you were ever to do that to us we will do the same to you. I hope so.