The half‐century of peace we have lived in europe is not due to nuclear deterrence*

Sixty‐nine wars in Europe since 1610 are listed and ‘weighted’ according to their duration and extension. The mean warlike activity decreases considerably from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. From about 1700, major wars affecting a large part of the Continent occur in pairs separated by only a few years; they have similar causes and nearly the same actors. A long period of peace (or marginal wars) follows the second of these wars. No change in the overall pattern has occurred since the introduction of nuclear weapons. Our long peace is comparable to (but not yet as long as) that which followed the Napoleonic wars.