Topic summary
Long-tailed distribution
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Long tail.
Long-tailed distributions in diplomacy
From a given country's viewpoint, diplomatic interactions with other countries likewise exhibit a long tail. Strategic partners receive the largest amount of diplomatic attention, while a long tail of remote states obtains just an occasional signal of peace. The fact that even allegedly "irrelevant" countries obtain at least rare amicable interactions by virtually all other states was argued to create a societal surplus of peace, a reservoir that can be mobilized in case a state needs it. The long tail thus functionally resembles "weak ties" in interpersonal networks.