U.S. President Donald Trump pulls back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran, swerving to deescalate the war less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate.
I’ve read Schelling’s Strategy of Conflict so I have done some reading on this. Once again you are assuming players are always rational which is a simplistic assumption. The game doesn’t work if one side doesn’t care about iterative rounds, chooses to signal erratic behaviour or doesn’t understand the implications of their actions.
A good example is Nixon’s “madman theory” during the Vietnam conflict.
Trump is erratic and can’t be assumed to act rationally , so his use of a nuclear weapon would massively increase the chance that Russia would use one in response on the basis that the US is willing to kill the leaders of other countries in a sneak attack.
MAD is not set in stone and can break down in certain circumstances.
I’ve read Schelling’s Strategy of Conflict so I have done some reading on this. Once again you are assuming players are always rational which is a simplistic assumption. The game doesn’t work if one side doesn’t care about iterative rounds, chooses to signal erratic behaviour or doesn’t understand the implications of their actions.
A good example is Nixon’s “madman theory” during the Vietnam conflict.
Trump is erratic and can’t be assumed to act rationally , so his use of a nuclear weapon would massively increase the chance that Russia would use one in response on the basis that the US is willing to kill the leaders of other countries in a sneak attack.
MAD is not set in stone and can break down in certain circumstances.