Prisoner Dilemma vs Chicken in International Relations

[TheCuriousJournalist]

I need to write a paper on the topic of which of these two models of the world best describe contemporary international relations..

Chicken is the game as you would imagine it with two cars driving towards each other, either one swerves, they both swerve, or they crash.

Prisoners dilemma is this... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma


I'm going to need to tie it to current events, etc

I'm just starting research now, so I figured I'd see what you guys have to say. Is there a Marxian perspective to this?

[aworldsman]

You have to pick one of those two models and apply it to "international relations"?

What's the purpose of this exercise?

[TheCuriousJournalist]

An essay. It's not exactly applying, but rather stating which describes the state of IR better in terms of implications and such.

[Misanthrope]

Prisoner one is going to be hard. What are your ideas so far? You could easily relate this to presidential debates or something completely bourgeois, but that wouldn't be intellectually satisfying but hey a grades a grade. It has to contemporary too... hmm.

I'll keep an eye on this topic and think about it. Very interesting, never even heard of the prisoner's dilemma. I'll get back to you! good luck!

[TheCuriousJournalist]

Prisoner one is going to be hard. What are your ideas so far? You could easily relate this to presidential debates or something completely bourgeois, but that wouldn't be intellectually satisfying but hey a grades a grade. It has to contemporary too... hmm.

I'll keep an eye on this topic and think about it. Very interesting, never even heard of the prisoner's dilemma. I'll get back to you! good luck!


I haven't thought of it much. It's due in about 15 days so I have a bit.
I think I need less of stuff like debates, and more of things like the Israel Palestine UN negotiations going on now, or to use a historical example, nuclear arms war is obviously an example of chicken.

The prof will talk about it more, so I'll have a better idea.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The way I understand these concepts (from whatever remains in my brain of my poli sci class) is that the chicken concept refers to very specific events (such as, say, the Cuban missile crisis), while game theory applies to poli sci relationships more generally.

The main point I'm making here is that there is no "vs" between these concepts, because they're not exclusive categories. One can accept game theory and still reference nations "playing chicken".