Game Theory in IR

 Ingrid Hoopes

23 March 2022

POLS 170


In one of my previous Economics classes, we watched the movie A Beautiful Mind which is about John Nash’s evolution of Nash equilibrium, a component of Game theory. One particular scene in the movie shows John and his friends in a bar where he analyzes a situation with a blonde woman and her four brunette friends. John and his friends all want to go for the blonde woman, but he explains their chances with her through the perspective of game theory economics. He tells them that if all of the guys try to flirt with the blonde woman, they would be blocking each other’s chances and she would not go for any of them. If they then tried to talk to the brunette friends, they would have no luck there as well because no one likes being the second option. If all of the men talked to the brunette women first, then they would have a better chance at one of them being with the blonde, which is a higher chance than they had in the first place. This real-life situation helps explain the process of game theory and can be applied to almost every human interaction, especially in economics and politics. 

When policies are decided upon in international relations, the ultimate goal is for every state to have the most favorable outcome, which can be difficult when it comes to issues such as war and security dilemmas or problems with cooperation. However, the worst outcome of a situation where game theory is applicable would be one party getting screwed in a deal instead of a lose lose situation. According to the prisoner’s dilemma, both parties will act in self interest which is the most probable outcome within Game theory. Ways that this can be counteracted in International Relations is through sociality or repeated plays, meaning states will learn from past mistakes in history. As stated in Kenneth Oye’s Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy, “Because as states, they cannot cede ultimate control over their conduct to an supra- national sovereign, they cannot guarantee that they will adhere to their promises,” which shows that states will always act in self interest, which is proven through the prisoner’s dilemma. Cooperation between states under anarchy can be analyzed using game theory and microeconomics, as well as how repeated interactions can increase its likelihood. This cooperation becomes increasingly difficult with the more “players” or states that are involved which is why game theory and predictions of plays is so important to international relations and policy decisions. 

Comments

  1. Jack CahalaneMarch 28, 2022 at 1:41 PM

    Ingrid, I really liked how you tied into your own personal example with game theory in IR. I think that you hit it on the nail with how states act in their own self interest in relation to this. Therefore, I believe this begs the question: what can be done in order to avoid this dilemma? How can states come together cooperatively? Overall, good response.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cassie LawlerApril 3, 2022 at 1:05 PM

    I think that using the game theory perspective is really valuable and making it applicable to a real world situation is helpful to understand the concept. I really liked how you layed these out together.

    ReplyDelete

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