Month: June 2003

Tyler Cowen, known co-conspirator of those Volokhs, is asking for help in developing an essay on game theory and international conflict: particularly, that between Israel and Palestine:
“Israel and Palestine and game theory I have been writing an article for the journal Public Choice on conflict in the Middle East. I am no Middle East scholar, or close to it, but I was asked to consider, from the point of view of game theory, how persistent international conflict might be possible. The Coase Theorem, after all, that touchstone of law and economics, tells us that parties will strike a mutually beneficial deal. But they don’t, so why not?
Can you give a rational choice account, in ten words or less, why the two parties don’t cut a deal?”
Well, I don’t work well with word count limits, but here goes:
Because there are more than two parties with conflicting interests.
(Ten exactly! See, I can write to spec. Now somebody start paying me.)
Game theory is hardly my area of expertise, so stop me if I start sounding stupid. But it seems to me that any attempt to comprehend the “Israeli- Palestinian” conflict that begins by assuming that there are only two sides in the conflict is doomed to failure.
The Israeli side has a wide spectrum of political parties jousting for power, each with its own view of how relations with the Palestinians should proceed. And on the Palestinian side, the divisions between the PLO leadership of Prime Minister Abbas and the ambitions of Hamas are well known. (Not to mention the equally clear split between Abbas’ faction and Arafat’s).
And we see how this applies to wrecking the game theory model on a regular basis. We’ve all grown used to the pattern: the moderate factions on each side agree to a negotiated peace deal. Then Hamas (or a PLO faction) escalates the violence, derailing the negotiation process.
And here’s another thought for you: Why should we conclude that the current state of unending violence and conflict is not necessarily what some terrorist groups such as Hamas actually want? And keep in mind, that’s not the same thing as saying that every single individual Hamas member wants unending war: Hamas as an institution, I think it can be argued, is designed to perpetuate violence and conflict. It’s not built for making peace — if you actually did ever manage to make peace with it, it would have ceased to be Hamas.
(And by the way: another problem is that if you take the stated goal of Hamas’s charter seriously, it’s the destruction of the state of Israel. So it’s fairly easy to see why there’s no possibility of compromise with the Israeli side; there is no mutually beneficial solution if that’s their starting point.)
So to wrap up from the game theory perspective:
1) If you want to properly apply it in this case, you can’t just use a simple two-player model, it has to be something far more complex with far more players.
2) Some of the players have mutually incompatible goals (Hamas: Destroy Israel; Israel: Avoid being destroyed)
Now I’ve gone way over ten words. But I suspect the subject deserves far more…

Congratulations are due to Allison Kaplan Sommer at An Unsealed Room for winning the catchup week of the New Weblog Showcase. Her post Cherry-Picking in the Golan Heights came in with 23 votes.
Complete results for the week are:
An Unsealed Room: Cherry-Picking in the Golan Heights
( 23 links)
suburban blight: Rock and Roll
( 18 links)
Hi. I’m Black!: Bret Boone on Steroids?
( 15 links)
Not Geniuses: White Wine or Kool-Aid, Mr. Sanger?
( 12 links)
Across, Beyond, Through: The Prodigal Father
( 9 links)
Metajournalism: Prison Privatization
( 9 links)
Brian Flemming\’s Weblog: Bill Gates to die in New York: Thoughts on the DV revolution
( 9 links)
Happy Furry Puppy Story Time: Austin Smoking Ban: Consistency is the Green Goblin of Something or Other
( 8 links)
Prometheus 6: Racism or Why They Don\’t Understand Us
( 7 links)
archy: Why do they support this man?
( 7 links)
Collinization: Find Joy In My Suffering
( 6 links)
truck808: rex sits idle
( 6 links)
Obnoxious Fumes: More on Moore
( 6 links)
A Blog of His Own: The French Method
( 5 links)
A Frolic of My Own: A day in Washington
( 5 links)
Cyber :: Ecology: Nasa to spark war with Mars
( 5 links)
Entre Nous / Musings of a former Belgian: Widespread “involuntary euthanasia” in Belgium
( 5 links)
Where We’re Bound: Scale of Democracy
( 5 links)
Backcountry Conservative: Orrin Hatch: “I write the songs”
( 4 links)
Dog of Flanders / Furandaasu no inu: You may have read this before: A guide to the successful showcase entry
( 4 links)
Little Miss Attila: The Mob Squad
( 4 links)
The Tears of Things: If I Had Curated the Arizona Biennial ’03
( 3 links)
Musings From The Imperial Senate: Corporate Welfare
( 3 links)
Screaming Bean: Tuesday, May 20, 2003
( 3 links)
geographica: Time for a new map of China
( 3 links)
RyCam.net: Flag Day
( 3 links)
Diversions: Treasure of Nimrud
( 2 links)
Political News and Analysis: Patriotism Toward Gov’t Opposed by Founding Fathers
( 2 links)
Tainted Law: Rational Basis
( 2 links)
The Blog Herald: Blog Herald attacks France again!
( 2 links)
Grammar Police: Lone Star Wars
( 2 links)
Nocturnal Nattering:
( 0 links)
Properwinston.: Properwinston.
( 0 links)
MercuryX23’s Fantabulous Blog: WMS
( 0 links)

Bet y’all thought I forgot my promise to do a roundup of entries to the Not-Quite New Weblog Showcase pseudocontest, didn’t you?
Fear not: here it is.
To cut to the chase: I simply had to give the ultimate victory to Glenn at Hi. I’m Black!.
Here’s a few exerpts from his post, self-described as “heavily laced with sarcasm” (you have been warned):
It is clearly evident to me that NZ Bear’s refusal to allow me to re-enter the New Weblog Showcase is a vast right-wing conspiracy designed to discredit the American Negro.
Please observe my timeline:
1767-Kunta Kinte is brought to the New World aboard the slave ship Lord Ligonier. ..
1990-Vanilla Ice’s debut album, “To the Extreme” sells 13 million copies..
2003-Given erroneous information, Glenn from Hi. I’m Black!, enters the New Weblog Showcase 2 days before the end of the weekly contest…
As we say in the biz, read the whole thing. A link to Glenn’s post now sits atop the Ecosystem listings — below the regular Showcase weekly winner, but above that other Glenn.
But the rest of the field bears mention as well. I have a feeling I may be missing some entries here — if you didn’t add a comment to the contest post, then I haven’t added your entry here. If I missed you, drop me a line and I’ll add your post to the heap.
The Dog of Flanders observes “that’s one sarcastic bear” — well, duh — and continues:
To NZ Bear: Dude, if you meant to say “stop whining and suck it up, dudes” just say it and don’t waste seven paragraphs. Seriously man, you must have too much spare time.
You’re telling a blogger to be brief? C’mon, I’m not hitting DenBeste / Bill Whittle levels here. And oh, yeah: stop whining and suck it up.
alter: Hey, self, we’re not going to win the contest with the above post. Maybe we should do a bit more grovelling.
self: Yeah, right, just so we can end up in the “special box on the Ecosystem page”, somewhere “prominent”. I can just imagine it: protoplasm of the week, or pond scum. I don’t trust that bear.
Nor should you! And by the way, you’re talking to yourself. [I think he knows that — Ed. Quiet you. ]
Kelley at Suburban Blight pleads blondeness — always a good defense:
I WAS ROBBED! Yes, heartlessly and cruelly. I mean, here I am, a Tard Queen and a blonde to boot, and I have SCRAPED UP the native intelligence to be able to communicate with you here, on the web…an Achievement! You! Should! Recognize!
Er…okay.
Graham Lester doesn’t just whine — he whines in verse :
There once was a fellow named Bear
Whose Showcase seemed rather unfair
Not full of baloney
But more Macaroni
Than looked like a rational share
It made no allowance at all
For people whose talents were small
Who thus got no links
Disastrous, methinks
My self-esteem started to fall…
Dan Morris, on the other hand, seems to center his rant around, well, a frog:
This is not intended as a macabre example of how truly twisted people can be. You may end up thinking I