U.S., China, North Korea
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/sponsored/us-china-relations-game-strategic-reassurance
In the article, the author writes that the U.S government is pushing China to have a tougher stance on North Korea. In order for China to take some actions, U.S. would withdraw its military forces that are stationed in the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ). In terms of the game theory, China and US are the two players in this game. If China agrees to hold a stronger stance on the North Korean issues, Beijing can get the benefit of less military deterrent from the United States. It’s also okay for China to not to take any further actions since the relationship between China and North Korea is more or less stable. Also taking the U.S.-China relationship into consideration, China may not believe the promise that U.S. makes.The other player, U.S., has two choices as well. One is that it can choose to keep requiring China to take more actions towards North Korea. The optimized result is that the world can avoid a nuclear armed war, which could cause countless casualties. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has the choice of stopping forming a contract with China. In this way, the U.S. doesn’t need to withdraw the forces from Korea, which might lead to a regional arms race. Furthermore, if China makes a arrangement with U.S. The U.S. government needs to guarantee the its relationship with South Korea and Japan and the influence placed on them will be minimal.
The decision is not made solely based on North Korean issues. The conflict between U.S. and China is a problem that is raised between rising power and incumbent power. It’s necessary for both counties to show that they won’t harm each other’s core interests. Both players have two options in this game and neither of them have a clear idea of what kind of decisions they should make. China and U.S. understand the costs of a world-wide conflict and want to avoid it as much as possible. Even though two counties are facing many uncertainty, they could figure out a solution which is the most practical for the North Korean problem.