A Spatial Supergame Model of Bilateral Interactions

Abstract

Choice-making is a popular phenomenon involved in all aspects of social life. Scholars from various fields have studied how decisions are made in different situations and have developed a variety of decision theories and methods. In chapter 2, I selected six prominent theories and models in political choice and international relations studies, including three from the analytic/rational choice school and three from the cognitive decision school, and discussed their contributions and limitations. In this chapter, I attempt to construct a theoretical framework to address the essential aspects of bilateral international relations and interactive choices by integrating some key elements from both rational and cognitive schools. The theoretical framework constructed here is called the spatial supergame model. By developing the spatial supergame model, I hope to bring together some seemingly disparate pieces of theoretical and empirical knowledge about interstate choices and relations and incorporate them into a synthesized and empirically testable framework.