Game Theory and International Relations
This article explores the basic principles of game theory and how it can be applied to nuclear conflict between Israel and Iran. Game theory is also known as interactive decision theory and addresses situations where one’s choices are directly influenced by the choices of others around them. Any situation that contains the following three elements can be considered a game: there are a set of players, each player has a set of strategies to pick from, and for each selection of strategies, each player receives a payoff. Upon examining these elements, one can conclude that game theory is applicable to international relations when countries are considered as players. These countries have many different strategies to choose from to further their objectives. Once a strategy is chosen, and executed, the country receives a payoff dependent on the actions of other involved countries.
The nuclear conflict between Israel and Iran arose because of Iran’s nuclear research. Israel does not have sovereignty over Iran, yet they wish for them to cease all nuclear research. Therefore, Israel must attack Iran’s research facilities if they hope to stop the research. However, Israel does not wish to execute a military strike as it harms its position internationally and must decide if attacking or not is the best option. On the other side, Iran also has two choices, to continue research or not. Therefore, this problem can be modeled using a 2×2 matrix (see below).
This matrix is known as a payoff matrix and contains the payoff for each set of strategies. The value of these payoffs is based on how a set of strategies will affect each country. These payoffs are reliant upon the objectives of both Iran and Israel. Upon examining the matrix, one can conclude that the best set of strategies are for Israel to not attack and for Iran to continue its research. This is because it is a dominant strategy as both countries receive a higher payoff regardless of the other country’s decision. Therefore, this conflict will remain stable throughout time if the underlying assumptions behind the model do not change.
Article Link
A Short Note on the Use of Game Theory in Analyses of International Relations