Evolutionary determinants of war

This paper considers evolutionarily stable decisions about whether
to initiate violent conflict rather than accepting a peaceful
sharing outcome. Focusing on small sets of players such as
countries in a geographically confined area, we use Schaffer’s
(1988) concept of evolutionary stability. We find that players
‘evolutionarily stable preferences widen the range of peaceful
resource allocations that are rejected in favor of violent
conflict, compared to the Nash equilibrium outcomes. Relative
advantages in fighting strength are reflected in the equilibrium
set of peaceful resource allocations.