The 1995-2018 global evolution of the network of amicable and hostile relations among nation-states

Abstract

Studying the evolution of the network of amicable and hostile relations between countries allows powerful insights into global events such as the origin of wars, economy collapses, and the result of political elections. Here, the authors study 23 years of event data for international appraisals and find that the evolution of the corresponding network is consistent with structural balance theory, with triadic interactions evolving towards balanced relationships.