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Published online 16 December 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news031215-1

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Mathematics could stabilize peace treaties

Game theory might help draw up war settlements.

A political scientist at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico has devised a mathematical method that could help civil-war negotiators to find the most stable peace treaties1.

Elisabeth Wood calculates that a settlement will be stronger and more likely to last if it finds the ideal way to apportion the stakes.

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