Strategy, Conflict, Peace

Catalog description

The course teaches the principal solution concepts to the analysis of strategic interaction in static and dynamic contexts, and under incomplete information. INTAF 505 Strategy, Conflict, Peace (3) The purpose of this course is to provide the analytical tools required to deal with international affairs situations that involve strategic actions - that is, actions whose outcome depends on the interaction with other decision makers. While the approach of the course is applied, with recourse to many illustrations by real examples, the primary concern of the course is with the development of the appropriate analytical tool kit to be able to deal with choice in the presence of strategic interaction with other agents. The core tool kit is provided by game theory, and this is the focus of the course. Coverage will be of the representation of games, solution concepts in static as well as dynamic games, and the role of information in games. While primary attention will be on non-cooperative strategic interaction, some results from cooperative game theory are also considered. Presentation of core analytical techniques will be in the form of lectures. Many applications will be presented by course participants. Applications are drawn from concrete examples encountered in the literature. Strong emphasis is placed on applications that are encountered by agents in international contexts. Since such international agents span the range from nations, political parties, firms, multinationals, households and firms, applications are multidisciplinary. Applications are drawn from (but not limited to): voting and agendas; reciprocity; surprise attack and disarmament; nuclear deterrence; randomization of promises and threats; sequential bargaining; time consistency; reputation; location games; partnership games; tariffs; Median Voter Theorem; political participation; contracts; guarantees; reputation and incomplete information; signaling; cheap talk; tournaments; coalition formation and the importance of stable preference-driven cooperation in an anarchic world.