International Political Economy and the Prisoner’s Dilemma: Compliance with International Law

This Chapter examines the prisoner’s dilemma in a variety of IL contexts. This study will reveal that IL can be viewed as explanandum in that a prisoner’s dilemma sometimes leads to the creation of IL. We will also see that IL can serve as explanans in the context of the prisoner’s dilemma, in that IL has consequences and effects for prisoner’s dilemmas while not always resolving them. The Chapter also identifies some limitations of the prisoner’s dilemma, in particular by highlighting examples of political economy factors that confound the assumptions inherent to a prisoner’s dilemma analysis.