Somehow the situation in Lybia reminds me again
of Axelrod's tribute model, which he describes
in his article "Building Political Actors"..
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~axe/research/Building.pdf
..which appeared for example in his book
"The complexity of cooperation". I wrote
Axelrod when the US attacked Iraq that this
attack is similar to a demand in his model:
the target is weak enough to ensure victory,
and strong enough to afford to pay the damage
afterwards - in barrels of oil. If I remember
it correctly, he agreed that there are some
similarities.
In Axelrod's tribute model, "the ideal target
of a demand is weak enough so that it might
choose to pay rather than fight, and so that
it won't cause much damage if it does choose
to fight. On the other hand, the ideal target
should be strong enough to be able to afford
to pay as much possible."
I like Axelrod's models, they are beautiful and
simple. Maybe they can give us a hint what
goes on behind the scenes, in the secret
rooms where the lobby groups provide advice
to the goverments. Take a look at the list of
the world's worst dictators. Does the world
fight against any of them, except Gadhafi?
http://www.parade.com/dictators/
-J.
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