Skip to main content



What game theory says about dealing with North Korea

https://theconversation.com/what-game-theory-says-about-dealing-with-north-korea-78195

According to game theory, a cooperative outcome is possible when the number of players is relatively small, and details of the game are known to everyone. However, this is not the case with North Korea. In this “game”, it is more likely that each player, or country, will choose whatever is best for themselves, resulting in a lot of second-best options. For example, North Korea is keen on nuclear development and military retaliation, when honestly they can probably benefit more with cooperation. The issue is that North Korea doesn’t know what will come with “cooperation” so they stick to what they want. Another example in this game is China. China wants to keep economic relations with North Korea for obvious reasons, but at the same time, as North Korea develops nuclear weapons, China risks having South Korea and Japan develop nuclear weapons in retaliation, which poses a threat to China. All of these problems can be alleviated with cooperation and peace between countries, but once again, because all the details of this “game” are unknown, nobody will act towards the positive outcome.

The current situation with North Korea is very similar to the prisoner’s dilemma that we discussed in class. If the prisoners were able to cooperate and work together, they could probably settle on both not confessing and taking a low sentence.  But, because they can’t work together, studies show that often both confess, and as a result they both serve a high amount of prison time. The same can be applied here to the countries. If all the countries were transparent and were able to cooperate, they could come to an agreement, with maybe making few sacrifices. However, this is certainly not the case, and as a result, everybody suffers and has a worse outcome because everybody acts in their own self-interest. The idea of working for self-interest is an important part of game theory, however it is important to also see that working selfishly can often have harmful effects.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Blogging Calendar

September 2017
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  

Archives