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This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
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From a new NBER working paper:
We examine the empirical relationship between the occurrence of interstate conflicts and the degree of relatedness between countries, showing that populations that are genetically closer are more prone to go to war with each other, even after controlling for a wide set of measures of geographic distance and other factors that affect conflict, including measures of trade and democracy.
So instead of war being conflict between natural genetic alliances, war is sibling rivalry writ large? Perhaps this won’t hold up to further scrutiny, but it sure is provocative.
War Is Brotherly
Genetic distance is a better indicator of contact between nations than geographic distance. As Jay noted, terrain matters. Greece is very close to Libya. Saudi Arabia is very close to Sudan. Italy is very close to Germany. But soldiers and lovers both need roads.
They control for geographic proximity, but is that enough? The intervening terrain matters enormously. Marching across a flat plain is much easier than establishing a beachhead in a naval invasion.