Public commitment in crisis bargaining
Journal Article (Journal Article)
The "audience cost" literature argues that highly-resolved leaders can use public threats to credibly signal their resolve in incomplete-information crisis bargaining, thereby overcoming informational asymmetries that lead to war. If democracies are better able to generate audience costs, then audience costs help explain the democratic peace. We use a game-theoretic model to show how public commitments can be used coercively as a source of bargaining leverage, even in a complete-information setting in which they have no signaling role. When both sides use public commitments for bargaining leverage, war becomes an equilibrium outcome. The results provide a rationale for secret negotiations as well as hypotheses about when leaders will claim that the disputed good is indivisible, recognized as a rationalist explanation for war. Claims of indivisibility may just be bargaining tactics to get the other side to make big concessions, and compromise is still possible in equilibrium. © 2009 International Studies Association.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Tarar, A; Leventoǧlu, B
Published Date
- September 1, 2009
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 53 / 3
Start / End Page
- 817 - 839
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1468-2478
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0020-8833
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2009.00557.x
Citation Source
- Scopus