Is War a Rational Activity?

This paper explores the existence of deterrence equilibria in a general equilibrium model of guns and butter production. If fighting entails suf-ficiently low destruction, war is the unique equilibrium of the game. If, however, conflict generates sufficiently large damages, only mixed strategy equilibria survive, in which players randomize over their deterrence and war strategies. War, therefore, always occurs with positive probability for any positive investment in weapons. “Si vis pacem, para bellum”. Vegetius