Number of Bordering States

Midlarsky (1975) and Garnham (1976) suggest the obvious idea that the more neighbors a state has the more likely it is to find itself in a war. In pursuit of this idea or variations of it, researchers have tried to correlate wars with variables such as the distance between capitals or the length of the frontiers. The basic concept seems to state the obvious. States are more likely to find themselves in disputes with neighboring states than with distant ones and the more of them there are the greater the number of potential disputes. Even if the variable is causative rather than merely correlative, it is difficult to imagine what should or could be done about it to reduce conflict.