George Rebane
Our President’s series of foreign policy embarrassments have now come to a critical stand-off with Iran. How Obama responds to Iran’s next betrayal of trust will determine to a great extent the future of the Middle East and the Levant (Near East). Pajamas TV has a very interesting, accessible, and short presentation (here) of the problem facing the US that applies to and informs all international relations.
Nations ultimately act in their self-interest. Those actions are explained clearly through the application of one of the systems sciences called game theory. The video dishes out just enough of the science so that an educated viewer will begin to see why always acting altruistically does not provide the best international and/or social orders. In fact, such behavior is absent in nature. For a more revealing and stimulating account of the whole affair of conducting relationships, read Robert Axelrod’s classic The Evolution of Cooperation (also referenced in the video).
(For the careful reader. In the video the described tactic ‘Tit for Tat’ is incomplete as introduced, and is implicitly corrected later. TfT is the hands down winning tactic in the co-operation game known as the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma. The complete rule set for TfT is –
1. Never defect first;
2. When opponent defects, retaliate immediately;
3. In next round if opponent co-operates, forgive and co-operate.
Omitting immediate retaliation puts one into the ‘food chain’ of the defector, reinforcing future/continued defections in it and others who observe the exchange.)
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