Question

Application: Dr. Strangelove and the Perils of Secrecy Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Wor- rying and Love the Bomb is set in the midst of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union In real life, the military consulted extensively with game theorists in the realm of nuclear deterrence. For example, two Nobel Laureate game theorists mentioned in this chapter, John Nash and Thomas Schelling, worked for a time at RAND Corporation analyzing various cets of the Cold War conflict. The movie mocks the game theory basis of nuclear deterrence. The plot features a rogue U.S. general who, convinced that water fluoridation is a Communist conspiracy to "sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids," orders his bomber squadron to launch a ear attack on the Soviets. The president orders his top commander to stop the bombers but the commander says it's impossible; to establish a credible commitment to fight back against a Soviet attack, the bombers cannot be recalled once they pass the point of no re turm. The president calls the Soviet premier to plead with him not to respond with a massive retaliation, but discovers that, unfortunately, the Soviets have recently installed a dooms- machine that automatically responds to any attack by launching a world-destroying e Further, the doomsday machine has been programmed to consider any at- eimpt to shut it down as sabotage, thereby also triggering an automatic launch. The Soviets eved this was the only way the machine would act as a credible commitment to respond nuclear b to an attack. Bu president's game theory advisor, I presider the Soviets had been keeping the machine a secret for the prior six month Dr. Strangelove (thought by some to be a parody of John mn one of the inventors of game theory), asks the Soviet ambassador incredu hole point of the doomsday machine is lost if you keep it a s DIDN'T YOU TELL nounced at the L THE WORLD, EH?" The ambassador answers, "It was to be an arty Congress on Monday. As you know, the premier loves surprises. sure this is the this is the message that Stanley Kubrick wanted to deliver by making s still right: If you have a doomsday machine, make it credible, and TELL re not this PEOPLE For each application, the student needs to: 1. Briefly summarize the application 2. Identify the concept it is applying 3. Describe how the concept is applied

Answer 1

Answer: (1) This application explains the shortcoming of the game theory in defining the nuclear deterrent. This article narrates the incidences from a movie by Stanley Kubrick which is based on the nuclear war between U.S and the Soviet Union. It describes that how the assumptions of the game theory may go wrong as mentioned in the movie when a commander from U.S orders nuclear bombing in Soviet Union based on his assumption of a soviet conspiracy of water fluoridation. The article describes that how the U.S gets a shock when they discover that Soviets have a secret dooms day machine that responds automatically to any attack on the country. Hence the article shows that how the assumptions based on game theory failed in the case of nuclear deterrent as demonstrated in the movie.

(2) The concept defined here is of the nuclear deterrent based on the game theory.

(3) This application applies the concept by using examples from a movie that describes some fictional events related with the concept of nuclear deterrence during the cold war period between U.S and the Soviet Union. It describes the dangerous stale mate that happens when decision makers from both the countries based on their assumptions make disastrous decisions.