gov chapter 9

what is the fundamental puzzle of war

why can’t political organizations identify and sustain a distribution settlement that avoids the costs of war and benefits all parties

what is the divide the dollar game

when 2 states try to bargain for something but they cant come up with a compromise and because of that they both get nothing but neither wants the other to have more than what they believe they should have. but the bargain would have benefitted the both of them.

what are some attributes of the bargaining model of war

it creates a theoretical foundation about why wars happen and what make s their end, it assumes that war impose costs, either human, economic, or socially. War is often a goal oriented behavior and an alternative to bargaining.

what is the bargaining model conposed of

it has first political conflict, then goes to the actual bargaining, then finally breaks off into compromise or war. It gives us the sides for if home and foreign were to go to war and shows us how in the middle there is always the possibility of peace

what are the primary components for any explanation of war

the 2 causes of war are problems with private information, and commitment problems

what is the expected utility for war.

its when you evaluate both sides to see who has the leverage and better chance of winning based of their resources, helps us see how both sides will assign a value for war before the war occurs

how does expected utility understand the decisions for war

it defines the values of military victory and defear, it weights each of the outcomes by its likelihood of occurring from the distribution of militarh capability

what is private information and how does it lead to war

private information is information that the other side doesn’t say that could potentially change the course of the war, it can lead to war because if the other side doesn’t know what type of advantages or disadvantages they have they could assume and want to fight/not right them due to that assumption

what are costly signals and how can they help foster peace

Costly signals occur are used to reveal information about important strategic variables in negotiations, the cost that the send pays to relay this threat helps to convey its credibility

what is an audience cost and an example

often threats and is used to communicate and reveal private information among actors in a bargaining situation, the costs are felt by actor if they fail to execute a promise, ex: when iraq invaded kuwait prez bush invoked audience cost when he stood up and said we cannot permit a resource so vital to be dominated and we wont. By making such a big claim he made himself vulnerable at home if hussein failed to withdraw from kuwait.

what is a sunk cost signal

these costs are felt by actor as part of the act of sending the signal. ex: the movement of troops to another military theater, the sender pays an immediate cost with a sunk cost signal. These costs relay a governments willingness to execute a threat,

how are sunk costs and audience costs different

sunk cost and audience costs are different as the cost for sunk cost is felt immediately while audience costs are only paid if the leader fails to execute a public threat.

how did problems of private info contribute to the war in the persian gulf

Kuwait believed that hussain was bluffing that they would invade kuwait for not raising price on oil, hussain had sunk costs and was exaggerating his military threats. And if they believed that hussain didnt have high resolve they expected sudan to pay high costs for going to war. But hussain wanted to go to war and they didnt realize how they each felt. Sudan didnt believe the US could handle the high costs for fighting in an extended war, because of this he didnt see it accurately and lost the war.