Introduction to International Relations - Why Diplomacy Is a Liar’s Game (But Not Always)

Leaders say a lot of things that get a ton of media attention. Political scientists have learned to (mostly) ignore them. Today, we examine the incentive to lie in negotiations, and how it renders most posturing meaningless. However, that is not universally true, and we spend the majority of the video working through the critical exceptions. 0:00 Puzzling Lies in International Relations 1:37 Outline 7:10 Cheap Talk and No Direct Costs 13:25 Cheap Talk and Unverifiability 22:11 Cheap Talk and Unchanging Actions 24:36 Incentive Compatibility 31:16 Similar Preferences and Credibility 33:56 Revealing Agreement and Disagreement 37:35 Signaling You Preferred Concessions 40:12 Non-Replicable Actions 41:27 Differentially Internalized Costs 44:27 When War Occurs with Costly Signals 46:48 Conclusion The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), EU, and NATO visual information does not imply or constitute an endorsement. Media licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): By Kremlin.ru: http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50385 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62277 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70750 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/71452 http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/75614