altruism
Behavior of an individual that benefits others. To the extent that the “others” are related to the altruist (the one exhibiting altruistic behavior), such actions may actually be an expression of ...
Anatol Rapoport
(1911–)Anatol Rapoport was born on 22 May 1911 in Lozovaya, Russia where he attended revolution-era public schools until emigrating to the US in 1922. He became a naturalized US ...
arms race
A competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, especially between the U.S. and the former USSR during the Cold War.
asymmetric contest
An aspect of evolutionary strategy in which the two participants in a contest do not have the same choice of strategies, or prospective payoffs. In contests between male and female, old and young, or ...
asymmetric games
A type of evolutionarily stable strategy, usually analysed in terms of game theory. In a symmetric game, such as the hawk–dove game, the two contestants start in identical situations, and have the ...
Augustin Cournot
(1801 –1877)A French economist remembered primarily for his pioneering study of monopoly, and especially duopoly. Rather than analyze the conditions of perfect competition that concerned most of his ...
bargaining theory
The branch of game theory that treats the rational strategies whereby agreements can be reached, for example on the price to be paid for a commodity.
behavioural ecology
1 The study of the behaviour of an organism in its natural habitat.2 The application of behavioural theories (e.g. game theory) to particular activities (e.g. foraging).
broken windows thesis
A thesis which links disorderly behaviour to fear of crime, the potential for serious crime, and to urban decay in American cities. It is often cited as an example of communitarian ideas informing ...
cartel
A system whereby producers divide up the market between themselves, avoiding direct competition and not encroaching on each other's share of the market. See Walker in R. Friman and P. Andreas, eds ...
catastrophe theory
Mathematical theory pioneered by the French mathematician René Thom, treating abrupt changes or discontinuities.
collective Action
Action taken by a group (either directly or on its behalf through an organization) in pursuit of members’ perceived shared interests. It seems logical to expect that people who have an interest in ...
collective-action problem
Any situation in which the uncoordinated actions of each player may not result in the best outcome he or she can achieve. Two famous examples are Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma, another class of ...
conflict
[This entry contains four subentries: Distant Early Warnings; Phases; Social Theories; and Typologies.]Distant early warning systems are an outgrowth of research undertaken by international relations ...
Constraints on Adaptation
Does natural selection lead to a “perfection of animals,” as the indefatigable taxonomist Arthur Cain suggested in the 1960s? Or are there constraints on what natural selection can achieve, what ...
cooperative game
A strategic game in which groups of players may form coalitions in order to increase the benefits from participation in the game. The players in a particular coalition act cooperatively to promote ...
coordination problem
A situation in which the interests of agents coincide, and the aim is to try to reach an outcome in which those interests are satisfied. Informally, this is a situation in which each person has an ...
Crisis
International crises punctuated the Cold War confrontation between the Soviet- and American-led blocs. Crises such as the Berlin blockade (1948), the outbreak of war in Korea (1950), the struggles ...
crisis management
1 Management of a crisis: measures that are taken to identify, acquire, and plan the use of resources to anticipate, prevent, and/or resolve a threat (for example to public safety arising from ...
decision analysis
A system of logic that uses elements of game theory and operational research to identify and quantify all available choices and their outcomes at each stage in designing a plan for preventive or ...
