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Browsing All Posts published on »February, 2012«
Commentary by James Fearon on Blumstein et al. (The Peacock’s Tale)
February 24, 2012 by SEF Editor
Blumstein et al. look to evolutionary theory regarding signaling in animal species to try to draw out some general rules of thumb that they think might be useful for diplomats and politicians in matters of foreign policy. The rationale for the exercise is that “By capitalizing on solutions derived by evolution over 3.5 billion year […]
Blumstein et al. The Peacock’s Tale: Lessons from evolution for effective signaling in international politics
February 14, 2012 by SEF Editor
Daniel T. Blumstein (1), Scott Atran (2), Scott Field (3), Michael E. Hochberg (4), Dominic D. P. Johnson (5), Raphael Sagarin (6), Richard Sosis (7), and Bradley Thayer (8) 1)Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA. 2)CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod-Ecole Normale Supérieure, 29 rue […]
Why cheap and ambiguous signals may serve diplomacy better than credible commitments. Commentary by Olivier Morin on Blumstein et al. (The Peacock’s Tale)
February 28, 2012 by SEF Editor
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In this interesting paper, Blumstein et al. argue for a view of diplomacy based on credible commitments, honest signals, and the prevention of misunderstandings caused by cultural distance. They hope to enlighten politicians with lessons drawn from evolutionary biology (though one might note that credible commitment was explored by Clausewitz before Darwin, and costly signalling […]