Date of Award
12-1996
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Dr. Alan C. Issak
Second Advisor
Dr. Murray Scot Tanner
Third Advisor
Dr. Neil Pinney
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
This study is dedicated to evaluating the capacity of game-theoretical models in analyzing and explaining international crises like mainland China-Taiwan relations. To highlight and reflect the nature of these complicated long-run relations, the author formulates a dynamic game model based on the combination of three well-known models, Deadlock, Prisoner's Dilemma, and Chicken instead of occupying one dominant model.
The mainland China-Taiwan relations (1949-1995) are divided into three individual phases in accordance with the configuration of game models: (1) the military confrontation phase (1949-78); (2) the peaceful competition phase (1978-86); and (3) the premature cooperation phase (1987-95). By generating and suggesting hypotheses, e.g., Chicken is more suitable than Prisoner's Dilemma in explaining mainland China-Taiwan relations in the post-Cold War era., the author tries to identify the likely patterns of strategy-choosing behavior of mainland China and Taiwan in terms of analyzing how, when , and why both sides adopted and shifted the strategies from one period to another. Also, the author witnesses a couple of limitations for the applications of game models.
Recommended Citation
Chang, Po-tung, "Game Theory and the Application to Mainland China-Taiwan Relations from 1949-1995" (1996). Masters Theses. 5012.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/5012