the essence of game theory

 

as we have occasion to mention, one of history’s greatest scientific minds was Van-nuemen and like Einstein he was innovative in many fields (he invented algorithms, the computer) and he famously invented game theory

Game theory is a simple theory, but without understanding this, no one has any right playing in foreign policy

Game theory teaches, that people either see one another as savage competitors, “the world is the ultimate fighting challenge,” no better description than the Arab’s saying “me against my brother, my brother and I against my cousin, my cousin and I against the world”! – for in their mind, the world is a place where people have the right to take anything you have

Then there are societies that have law and order – in such a society because there is a centralized government that prevents the abuse of an individual, the natural desire for unity comes to the fore

This neatly explains pretty much all of our foreign-policy

When we deal in foreign policy there are three kinds of nations we deal with

There are friends, there are enemies, and there are competitors

For example, in the business world someone may be my competitor but we are not enemies – we have A competition, but we certainly don‘t hate, nor would God-forbid murder another

That is not the case with an enemy – in the view of many countries – certainly the Arabs, and having lived in Africa, certainly most African countries (for this is their view visa-vie one another, so how much more so to anyone else!) to be honest, I don‘t understand the mentality of Asian countries so I don‘t know – They Would Be Thrilled To Be Able To Destroy Us