Replicating the Size of Wars:
New Empirical Extensions and Computational Reconstructions of Power
Laws
Lars-Erik Cederman, Claudio Coiffi-Revilla
cederman@cfia.harvard.edu
The size of wars follows a power law, as first
discovered by Lewis F. Richardson, indicating a scale-free distribution with
fractal dimension. This study builds on earlier studies and makes two contributions,
(1) by extending the power law distribution of war size to additional empirical
dimensions of warfare (duration, extent, and scope), and (2) by replicating
the empirical findings with the GeoSim agent-based simulation. The GeoSim
simulation data provides a close replication of the empirical power laws,
a necessary requirement for developing a computational theoretical explanation
of the size of wars.