Chapter Three: Christopher Columbus and International Relations

Study

Chapter Summary

Principles uses the familiar story of Christopher Columbus's adventure to the (West) Indies as an introduction to both strategic logic and some of the tools we'll use in the rest of the book to explore international behavior in general. Decision theory allows us to represent an actor's evaluations of costs and benefits and also allows us to weight these costs and benefits by the likelihood of obtaining them. This gives us a systematic approach to comparing an actor's alternative choices. Game theory, on the other hand, gives us a way to scrutinize interaction between players. By considering how other actors will respond to a given action, we can evaluate choices more carefully and better predict behavior.

Study Questions

• What is the difference between utility and expected utility?
  
  

• What does it mean to say that actors behave strategically?
  
  

• Let's think in the world of the counterfactual for a bit. If Columbus had sailed for France, what parts of world history might have turned out differently? (Check Chapter 1 for ideas.) What parts of France's expected utility equation might you change to increase France's value for sponsoring the expedition?