By Ian Howarth
Rational choice theories attempt to predict the course of actions that either individuals or groups will take in specific situations. The utility of this is apparent in international relations, and during the Cold War governments on all sides spent considerable time and money developing this field. Each side trying to work out what State A would do if State B did X. The policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) emerged out of this theoretical approach to human behaviour and international relations. It could be in no-one’s interests either individually or collectively to launch a nuclear war in the knowledge of their own assured destruction. Unless of course they were mad!
The prisoner’s dilemma is the classic example from rational choice theory in its examination of the clash between individual and collective rationality. The dilemma is as follows, two partners in crime are in police custody and in…
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