Population Growth and Periodic Instability of the International System
  From the perspective developed in this paper, it can be argued that exponential population growth resulted in the exponential decrease of the life-span of consecutive stable periods during the life-span of the European international system (1480-1945). However, it becomes evident as well that population growth as such is not a sufficient condition to generate a punctuated equilibrium dynamic in the war dynamics of the international system: other conditions and factors - and their interplay - contribute to this typical dynamic as well. From 1945 until the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), the conditions of international system differed fundamentally from the conditions of the European international system during the period 1480-1945. It can be argued, that sooner or later a punctuated equilibrium war dynamic will resume. 
Ingo Piepers