The Importance of Commitment Strategies

The reason we aren't in a Hobbesian anarchy is that we have reasonably consistent pictures of each other's commitment strategies. And if I drop my commitments against you, other people will observe that and say, look, he's a wimp, we can push him around too. This is why the UK was willing to send their only aircraft carrier almost to Antarctica to fight the Argentina over some barren islands. If it was clear that they were not committed to defend their territory even when it didn't seem worth doing,. But on the other hand, if you have a organization that is sufficiently powerful and if other people don't see giving into it as the same thing as giving into an ordinary person