An interesting article on how game theory influences international terrorism strategy from the Sydney Morning Herald:How to bomb friends and alienate us all - smh.com.au


Al-Qaeda's apparent new focus on soft, even non-Western, targets could be its death knell, writes Gerard Henderson.

Writing in last Friday's Wall Street Journal, Sharon Begley drew attention to work being done by the US academics, Walter Enders and Todd Sandler, in applying game theory to a study of terrorism and anti-terrorism. The theory was invented by the mathematician John Nash and popularised by Russell Crowe, who played Nash in the film A Beautiful Mind. Enders and Sandler are interested in the likely outcome when two rational agents - in this case, the terrorist and the anti-terrorist - make choices as to action.

The evidence suggests that the decision by US authorities to clamp down on terrorism (following the September 11 attacks) has led to a situation where terrorists have decided to choose softer, non-American, targets. Both decisions are rational.