Games Nations Play : analyzing international politics

As its subtitle suggests, the purpose of this book is to teach the reader primarily the college student-how to think about international politics. The average undergraduate takes a course in international politics largely to gain some understanding of the contemporary world and, in particular, of the role played by his own country. Many, of course, are interested in finding out more about particular events and issues, be it the cold war. NATO, Vietnam, the Middle East, or SALT. The one thing many students do not expect when they enroll in a course on international politics is abstract analyses of the nature of international politics in order to learn how to analyze international politics for themselves. It is precisely be cause current events so soon become "ancient history" that my aim has been to provide readers with those tools of analysis that will enable them to analyze tomorrow's events for themselves. I hope that, in the end, they will have gained a deeper comprehension of some the external and internal problems states confront and why frequently they act as they do, whether they are capitalist or communist, highly industrialized or eco nomically underdeveloped.

Thus, this is a book about the "games nations play." Its objective, more over, is to convey to the student that there are a number of different ways to think about the subject and not just one way, not simply a "right" way. To this end, the book employs three levels of analysis: the state system,