The Prisoner’s Dilemma in the Cuban Missile Crisis
https://europe.unc.edu/iron-curtain/power-and-politics-the-prisoners-dilemma/
This article titled, Power and Politics– The Prisoner’s Dilemma, from the Center for European Studies details a brief history of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War Cuban Missile Crisis. It discusses, the U.S’ discovery that the Soviet Union, who had allied with Cuba, was building a nuclear weapon on the island only 90 miles from the U.S. It then references the U.S response to issue a blockade around Cuba and a formal order to the Soviet Union to remove the missile and destroy its production site. Kennedy described the risk of “catastrophic consequences” should they not come to a peaceful resolution. After thirteen days, the Soviet Union agreed to remove the missile if the U.S would lift the ban and agree to leave Cuba alone.
The situation detailed in the article is a historical example of the prisoner’s dilemma at work. As we learned when understanding Game Theory, the prisoner’s dilemma involves a few potential decisions for the parties involved in which, in the case of Nash equilibrium, there are optimal choices for each party to reap the most benefits. Otherwise, each party is faced with a certain level of compromise based on how their own decision plays out in conjunction with the other party’s decision. The dilemma here was that each side had the opportunity to cooperate and avoid significant destruction or to shoot first out of self-interest and guarantee large-scale damage. Thankfully, the final compromise avoided significant destruction and resulted in a degree of benefits for both parties. This is similar to the Dove-Hawk game example from lecture where both parties choose to be doves.