Game Theory in International Relations

                      According to this realist approach in international relations is that the nation-states behaviours depend on their own interests. Additionally, they consider each other's interest only if this interest is damanded by threatening or by use of power.

                     Nation-States do not act like humans and their acts do not rely on humanitarian basics. Even the mutually signed international agreements according to the procedures of the international law do not limit their actions. When this concept is practiced in social real-life relations the actors would be radically self-centered and only pursuing their own interests.

                    On the other hand, in Game Theory determanants of actions are not studied.

                    Regarding the defence alliances between the countries for instance. 2-3 countries can come together and form a defence force against an external threat. This is win-win situation as in the Prisoner's Dilemma. Each member benefits and provide multi protection and confirm not to attack to each other.

                   In arms race for instance each nation-states try to incerase their military capacity up to limits and they do not take into consideration "fix-limits".
                 
                    Cuban Missile Crisis can be a good example for game theory. For the USA there was two options whether to attack missile installations in Cuba or blockade Cuba and prevent future installations and for the USSR again two options; taking back the missiles or insisting on building them in Cuba. At the end both countries have been met in win-win situation again and against withdrawing the missiles in Cuba, Jupiter missiles were taken back from Turkey by the USA.

Books on International Politics
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International Politics : Samuel P. Huntington - The Clash of Civilizations

             Huntington in his theory specifies that the era of ideologies and conflicts between has ended now the rivalry is between the civilizations. According to him the main conflicts in the future will occur because of the differences between the cultures. Especially after the cold-war the importance of the conflict in civilizations or cultural conflicts has increased.

            He mentiones main civilizations in the world as:

            Western Civilization: Western Europe, Northern America, Australia and New Zealand.
            Orthodox Countries: Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece
            Latin America: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile, Mexico...
            Islamic Countries:  Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, Somalia
            India : Continental India and Nepal
            China: Including Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan
            Japan: Mixture of Chinese and Altaic civilization
         
           Apart from these main types according to Huntington's theory there are also isolated countries like Israel, Turkey, Ethiopia which do not belong any of the above mentioned groups.

           According to his theory Russia and India; China and Iran are natural allies.
   
           
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International Politics : Francis Fukuyama - The End of History

              To begin with , liberalism, according to Fukuyama is the end point of historical stream. With the term "end of the history" he actually means after all search and investigation of history to explore the welfare society "liberalism" is the end line.

              Liberal democracy at the end will be the dominant ruling system. There are two reasons for this opinion, first dominant over the natural sciences and consequently development of the technology and utilizing this technology for the welfare of the society and increasign military power as the time passes combines all nation states under a single title which is liberalism by losing all cultural differences .

             Secondly, dialectic, originally Hegel's dialectic, according to this history finds himself naturally at liberalism at the end with dialectic by passing the stages of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis. According to the above mentioned two theories liberalism is an inevitable end of each state as the other ideologies can not fulfill the requirements of welfare state and freedom.

             

International Politics : The Great Middle East Project

             Great Middle East is mostly a political term rather than geographical. The countries in the mentioned term is beginning from Morrocco in the West and till Pakistan in the East also consisting the countries like Turkey, Israel, Iran, Jordan...The map was originally prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters.

            As mentioned in the journals it is also considered as a plan to redraw the middle east map. In the mentioned map actually many Middle East countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan were shown divided. This "project" seems like the plan for division and pacification of the region. Secondly a founding a route to Central Asia in order to prevent a future Russian expansion in the area. Thirdly and most importantly the region mentioned in the map hold most of the global energy sources and trade routes at one hand and any power which may be able to obtain authority in this region become absolute dominant party in global affairs.

        The above mentioned area was also considered to be the "Eurasian Balkans" which means obtaining too much ethnics and ready to live civil wars and uprisings.  The "map" for some scholars is to identify the possible peaceful living areas without a problem.

   

World News : Syrian Civil War - Bashar al-Assad against Free Syrian Army

        The ongoing civil war in Syria which was started on March,2011 can be candidate for one of the most brutal wars in world history. Started as peaceful demonstrations but in following days became a horrible war between Syrian Army and the uprising groups. The opposition was composed of civilians and also escaped officers from the army who did not want to involve in these violence against civilians.

       Additionally, Hezbollah also sent troops to fight together with Syrian Army against oppositon. Apart from the Hezbollah, Syrian Ba'ath Government and Army headed by Bashar al-Assad also got support from Iran, Russia and China. As known the last two are the members of the UN security council and have vote to effect the decisions. On the other hand, the opposition is supported by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

        The picture in Syria now seems like a rivalry between Alawite Shabiha militias, Syrian Army and Sunni opposition groups.

        As a result of this rivalry unfortunately many innocent people lose their lives and it seems if UN or NATO does not intervene many more will die until the end of this war. Russia and China continue to prevent an international intervention whereas Turkey aims to stop this civil war immediately with an international force.
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