A Game Theory Analysis of India-Pakistan Relationships
India and Pakistan never had the most warm of friendships. This is a situation that stretches back to the partition of India around 70 years ago, but there is no sign of an improvement. One of the central pieces of disagreement is about Kashmir, whether it should stay with India or become part of Pakistan.
The writer here first constructs a 2-by-2 payoff matrix for India and Pakistan, where the two options for both countries are to either opt for peace or for war. While the payoff for both countries would be higher if they opted for peace, the lingering mistrust between the countries means that both instead opt for war. However, the current matrix does not account for a third party in China. China is a destabilizing force, rendering the simple payoff matrix moot and unrepresentative of the real situation.
Here, the writer proposes a different way of thinking about this situation that is not just about ‘not losing.’ Instead, the two countries should enter into principled negotiations, where there is “separation of people from issues; focusing on interests and not on positions; inventing new options for mutual gain and insisting on objective criteria in choosing options.” If India and Pakistan does go into negotiations with these four points in mind, then a more lasting solution will surely follow.
This article is interesting because it ties game theory to real life scenarios, and goes beyond what we learned in class. The writer tries to represent the current situation more accurately than would be possible with a simple 2-by-2 payoff matrix by accounting for a third party influence (China), and also arguing against the Nash equilibrium that the India-Pakistan relationship is currently stagnating in. By showing us something we’ve learned – that the Nash equilibrium might not mean the ‘best’ outcome – and tying it to real life situations while reminding us that there might be alternatives to simply analyzing payoff matrices, the piece is very relevant.
Source:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/20092015-why-india-pakistan-dialogue-needs-to-be-reconceptualised-alongn-lines-of-principled-negotiations-analysis/