Il ruolo della teoria dei giochi nel neorealismo strategico di Thomas C. Schelling

Abstract

Nowadays in the world there are a lot of game theory fans among politicians, economists, mathematicians and psychologists: also a “pure” economist like Thomas C. Schelling was charmed by game theory and in 1994 his studies, shared with Robert Aumann, led him to win the Nobel Prize for Economics. His masterpiece, The Strategy of Conflict, published in 1960, was the first study in the world about strategic behavior and is considered now as one of the most important books that influenced Western culture after 1945. With The Strategy of Conflict Schelling inaugurated a new stream of international relations known as “strategic neorealism”. In this essay, that explains the link between international relations and maths, there is a reflection about Cold War and nuclear deterrence: the study of game theory highlights how weapons of mass destruction (this is the paradox of the atomic age) avoided, at the same time, the nuclear destruction of the planet