2 - Representing strategic interactions with games

Summary

In this chapter we will examine several examples that can be analyzed using game-theoretic tools. These examples will help to illustrate the considerations involved when social interactions or confrontations are represented by strategic form games. We will also discover what aspects cannot be represented by a strategic form game, and find out in what ways the game concept needs to be extended so as to realize more appropriate representations.

The background to the Six Day War

The Six Day War of June 5–10, 1967, between Israel and its neighboring Arab states Egypt, Jordan and Syria, was a key event in the evolution of the conflict in the Middle East. The strategic dilemmas faced by the belligerents constitute a prime example for game-theoretic analysis.

After Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, in accordance with the United Nations resolution from November 1947, its borders with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon were established via a war which lasted until March 1949. In 1956, in response to terrorist infiltrations from the Sinai Peninsula, Israel captured it from Egypt, but withdrew under international pressure and guarantees for shipping rights in the Red Sea, from the port of Eilat via the Straits of Tiran.