Conflictual Peacetime International Politics

Affirmative answers are given to two questions of international politics: Do the parsimonious postulates of structure theory imply any mode of behavior for states, as claimed by the theory of neorealism? Does a principle of the harmony of interests exist for states, as asserted by idealist theories? Answers emanating from an n-person game theoretic model, which portrays states as security maximizing agents that allocate their conflictual resources against each other at peacetime, can be summarized in a “principle of the harmony of security.” In a world without a hegemon, if all states are cautious and ambitiously maximize their individual securities, then the world will be in a mode of bilateral-equilibrium in which all states are equally insecure. If two or more strong states vigorously pursue their individual securities, then a bilateral-equilibrium is most plausible, irrespective of whether the rest of the states are irrational, modest, or ambitious. ∗ Bilkent University, Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department, Bilkent, Ankara, 06800 Turkey phone: 90-312-2901259, fax: 90-312-2664192, email: [email protected]