Balance of Power and System Stability: Simulating Complex Anarchical Environments Over the Internet

Abstract

Game theoretic examinations of balance of power hypotheses in the context of N-player games have identified certain distributions of resources which should lead to system stability, defined as the continued survival of all participants (Wagner 1986, Niou, Ordeshook, and Rose 1989; Niou and Ordeshook 1990). This article uses data from a seven-player simula tion of realist international politics to analyze hypotheses on power dis tributions, the number of actors, and system stability By conducting the simulation over the Internet, a tremendous number of runs through the simulation can be completed in a relatively short time, thereby generat ing sufficient data for the statistical analysis of the distributions of power that occur. These data can then be used to examine how those distribu tions relate to the number of participants found in the eventual end-state of the system.