Networks of Military Alliances, Wars, and International Trade

Matthew Jackson and Stephen Nei

No 2014.46, Working Papers from Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Abstract: We investigate the role of networks of military alliances in preventing or encouraging wars between groups of countries. A country is vulnerable to attack if there is some fully-allied group of countries that can defeat that country and its (remaining) allies based on a function of their collective military strengths. Even with such a demanding notion of vulnerability, we show that there do not exist any networks that are stable against the addition and deletion of alliances. We then show that economic benefits from international trade can provide incentives to form alliances in ways that restore stability and prevent wars. In closing, we briefly examine the historical data on interstate wars and trade, noting that a dramatic (more than ten-fold) drop in the rate of interstate wars since 1960 is paralleled by an unprecedented growth in trade over the same period.

Keywords: Alliances; Conflict; War; Networks; International Trade; Treaties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 D85 F10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his, nep-int and nep-net
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Networks of Military Alliances, Wars, and International Trade (2015)
Working Paper: Networks of Military Alliances, Wars, and International Trade (2014)
Working Paper: Networks of Military Alliances, Wars, and International Trade (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fem:femwpa:2014.46

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