Fractality and Self-Organized Criticality of Wars

Abstract

This paper considers the frequency-size statistics of wars. Using several alternative measures of the intensity of a war in terms of battle deaths, we find a fractal (power-law) dependence of number on intensity. We show that the frequency-size dependence of forest fires is essentially identical to that of wars. The forest-fire model provides a basis for understanding the distribution of forest firest in terms of self-organized criticality. We extend the analogy to wars in terms of the initial ignition (outbreak of war) and its spread to a group of metastable countries.