I see now what you were getting at with respect to the influence of trade and war. That makes a lot of sense to me. I was pushing back at the absolutism of your statement. I agree that the trend of world violence is downward and the trend of global trade is upward.

I think statements like "The world has known only ONE model of peace" don't reflect the nuance of the claims made by your references. For example, the hypothesis of "The Impact of War on Trade: An Interrupted Times-Series Study" is "trade promotes peace".

The Jackson paper[0] includes a stronger statement: "In the context of the alliances we have analyzed, trade motives are essential to avoiding wars and sustaining stable networks,", but all like all good science, acknowledges "in the context of the alliances we have analyzed".

Like I said, the premises and findings of these papers make sense to me, and I don't find them surprising, but I don't think they support such an absolute statement.

Thanks again for the links! I wouldn't have likely have come across them otherwise. Good stuff!

[0]: http://www.pnas.org/content/112/50/15277