What is the Best Response to North Korea’s Nuclear Advancements?
The interview with Tim Toughgarden, the professor of computer science at Stanford University, gave some insight about how game theory can be applied to international relations and, more specifically, relations with North Korea. Recently, North Korea has showcased their nuclear capabilities (whether they are legitimate or not is a separate debate), which has put nuclear war as a possibility on the table. Stated by Professor Toughgarden, a nuclear war has similar consequences as the prisoner’s dilemma. It was interesting to note that while the Cold War between USSR and US was very similar to the prisoner’s dilemma, the relationship between North Korea and US is not yet at that point because “North Korea doesn’t yet have a symmetric ability to retaliate against [US].” They’re working on the technology so that the current situation mirrors a prisoner’s dilemma.
In class, Professor Easley pointed out that game theory is highly useful in studying international relations, which is exactly what this interview focuses on. The interview also brings in the Prisoner’s Dilemma as an example to explain game theory, which is exactly what was discussed in lecture. More interestingly, because game theory can be used to predict a response (the dominant response), it may help the US counter North Korea in the future. However, a dominant response is not always known. In this case, Professor Toughgarden pointed out that the lack of understanding of North Korea by the Trump administration as well as the lack of interaction between North Korea and the US point to the fact that the dominant response is unknown, which is why there is a lot of debate as to what North Korea will do in the future.