In: Economics
Describe the ways in which the prisoner's dilemma captures the essence for international politics
The prisoner's dilemma is one of the most cited examples in the field of Game Theory. It was originally framed by Merril Flood and Melvin Dresher. Albert W Tucker formolized the game with prison sentence rewards and named it "prisoner's dilemma".
The prisoner's dilemma is one type of game which is understood as a two person game where the outcome of the game depends on the decisions of both actors. This is one type of interaction with in a broader field understood as Game Theory. Game Theory examines these sorts of interactions between actors.
The two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned.Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other.The prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge, but they have enough to convict both in lasser charge.Simultaneously, the prosecutors offer each priടoner a bargain. Each prisoner is given the opportunity either to betray the other by testifying that the other committed the crime or to cooperate with the other by remaining silent. The possible outcomes are :
1. If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves two years in prison.
2. If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve three years in prison.
3. If A remains silent but B betrayട A, A will serve three years in prison and B will be set free.
4. If A and B both rema in silent both of them will serve only one year in prison.
In International Political Theory, the prisoner's dilemma is often used to demonstrate the coheronce of strategic realism, which holds that an international relations, all states will act in their retional self- interest given international anarchy.
Traditionally, the most effective option for overcoming a prisoner's dilemma is the tit for tat strategy,each person has the choice between he having opportunistically and responsibly. The best possible outcome is multilateral cooperation but it is difficult to realise because each person benefits unilaterally from defection.