Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-plnhv Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-08-05T09:47:50.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trust, Reassurance, and Cooperation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2003

Andrew Kydd
Get access

Abstract

Many scholars have argued that mistrust can prevent cooperation. These arguments often fail to adequately address the possibility that states can take steps to reassure each other, build trust, and thereby avoid conflict. I present a rational choice theory of reassurance focusing on costly signals and identify the conditions under which players can use costly signals to reassure the other side. The central result is that reassurance will be possible between trustworthy players in equilibrium if trustworthy actors are more willing to take risks to attain mutual cooperation than untrustworthy actors. I discuss the implications of the model in the context of the reassurance strategies pursued by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the end of the Cold War.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , Spring 2000 , pp. 325 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adler, Emanuel, and Barnett, Michael, eds. 1998. Security Communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allan, Pierre, and Goldmann, Kjell, eds. 1992. The End of the Cold War. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Beschloss, Michael R., and Talbott, Strobe. 1993. At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Bitzinger, Richard A. 1994. Gorbachev and GRIT, 1985–1989: Did Arms Control Succeed Because of Unilateral Actions or in Spite of Them? Contemporary Security Policy 15 (1):68–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blacker, Coit D. 1993. Hostage to Revolution: Gorbachev and Soviet Security Policy, 1985–1991. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, Valerie, and Levi, Margaret, eds. 1998. Trust and Governance. New York: Russel Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Chafetz, Glenn R. 1993. Gorbachev, Reform, and the Brezhnev Doctrine: Soviet Policy Toward Eastern Europe, 1985–1990. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.Google Scholar
Checkel, Jeff. 1993. Ideas, Institutions, and the Gorbachev Foreign Policy Revolution. World Politics 45 (2): 271–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Eliot A. 1988. Toward Better Net Assessment: Rethinking the European Conventional Balance. International Security 13 (1):50–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, James S. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Alan R. 1998. GRIT, Gorbachev, and the End of the Cold War. Review of International Studies 24 (2):201–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Figueiredo, Jr, Rui, J. P., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1999. The Rationality of Fear: Political Opportunism and Ethnic Conflict. In Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention, edited by Walter, Barbara F. and Snyder, Jack, 261–302. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Downs, George W., and Rocke, David M.. 1990. Tacit Bargaining, Arms Races, and Arms Control. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etzioni, Amitai. 1962. The Hard Way to Peace: A New Strategy. New York: Crowell-Collier Press.Google Scholar
Farrell, Joseph, and Rabin, Matthew. 1996. Cheap Talk. Journal of Economic Perspectives 10 (3): 103–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1993. Threats to Use Force: Costly Signals and Bargaining in International Crises. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1995. Rationalist Explanations for War. International Organization 49 (3):379–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D.. 1996. Explaining Interethnic Cooperation. American Political Science Review 90 (4):715–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 1995. Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Gambetta, Diego, ed. 1988. Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ganguly, Sumit, and Greenwood, Ted, eds. 1996. Mending Fences: Confidence and Security Building Measures in South Asia. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Garthoff, Raymond L. 1990. Deterrence and the Revolution in Soviet Military Doctrine. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Garthoff, Raymond L. 1994. The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Glaser, Charles L. 1992. Political Consequences of Military Strategy: Expanding and Refining the Spiral and Deterrence Models. World Politics 44 (4):497–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, Charles L. 1994. Realists as Optimists: Cooperation as Self-Help. International Security 19 (3):50–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, Charles L. 1997. The Security Dilemma Revisited. World Politics 50 (1):171–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaser, Charles L., and Kaufmann, Chaim. 1998. What Is the Offense-Defense Balance and Can We Measure It? International Security 22 (4):44–82.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Joshua S., and Freeman, John R.. 1990. Three-Way Street: Strategic Reciprocity in World Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Güth, Werner, and Kliemt, Hartmut. 1994. Competition or Co-Operation: On the Evolutionary Economics of Trust, Exploitation, and Moral Attitudes. Metroeconomica 45 (2): 155–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Güth, Werner, and Kliemt, Hartmut. 1998. The Indirect Evolutionary Approach: Bridging the Gap Between Rationality and Adaptation. Rationality and Society 10 (3):377–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, Michael J., ed. 1992. The End of the Cold War: Its Meaning and Implications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollis, Martin. 1998. Trust Within Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jervis, Robert. 1976. Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jervis, Robert. 1978. Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma. World Politics 30 (2): 167–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, Robert G. 1992. Why Gorbachev Happened: His Triumphs, His Failure, and His Fall. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Stuart J. 1996. Spiraling to Ethnic War: Elites, Masses, and Moscow in Moldova's Civil War. International Security 21 (2): 108–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelman, Herbert C. 1985. Overcoming the Psychological Barrier: An Analysis of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Process. Negotiation Journal 1 (3):213–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Jeanne J. 1990. The Withering Away of the Totalitarian State … and Other Surprises. Washington, D.C.: The American Enterprise Institute Press.Google Scholar
Kydd, Andrew. 1997. Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Why Security Seekers Do Not Fight Each Other. Security Studies 7 (1):114–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahno, Bernd. 1995a. Trust and Strategic Rationality. Rationality and Society 7 (4):442–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahno, Bernd. 1995b. Trust, Reputation, and Exit in Exchange Relationships. Journal of Conflict Resolution 39 (3):495–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David A., and Rothchild, Donald. 1996. Containing Fear: The Origins and Management of Ethnic Conflict. International Security 21 (2):41–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David A., and Rothchild, Donald, eds. 1998. The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landa, Janet Tai. 1994. Trust, Ethnicity, and Identity: Beyond the New Institutional Economics of Ethnic Trading Networks, Contract Law, and Gift Exchange. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Lane, Christel, and Bachmann, Reinhard, eds. 1998. Trust Within and Between Organizations: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Applications. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Deborah W. 1987. Crisis Prevention and the Austrian State Treaty. International Organization 41(1):27–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Deborah W. 1997. Anatomy of Mistrust: U.S.-Soviet Relations During the Cold War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lebow, Richard Ned, and Risse-Kappen, Thomas, eds. 1995. International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lebow, Richard Ned, and Stein, Janice Gross. 1994. We All Lost the Cold War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lindley, Daniel A. 1998. Transparency and the Effectiveness of Security Regimes: A Study of the Concert of Europe Crisis Management and United Nations Peacekeeping. Ph.D. diss., Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Lindskold, Svenn. 1978. Trust Development, the GRIT Proposal, and the Effects of Conciliatory Acts on Conflict and Cooperation. Psychological Bulletin 85 (4):772–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 1982. Why the Soviets Can't Win Quickly in Central Europe. International Security 7(1):3–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 1994. The False Promise of International Institutions. International Security 19 (3):5–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelson, Sarah E. 1993. Internal Battles and External Wars: Politics, Learning, and the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan. World Politics 45 (3):327–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, James D. 1994. Game Theory for Political Scientists. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Oberdorfer, Don. 1991. The Turn: From the Cold War to a New Era: United States and the Soviet Union, 1983–1990. New York: Poseidon Press.Google Scholar
Osgood, Charles Egerton. 1962. An Alternative to War or Surrender. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 1998. A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action. American Political Science Review 92 (1):1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peffley, Mark, and Hurwitz, Jon. 1992. Internalional Events and Foreign Policy Beliefs: Public Response to Changing Soviet–U.S. Relations. American Journal of Political Science 36 (2):431–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plous, S. 1985. Perceptual Illusions and Military Realities. Journal of Conflict Resolution 29 (3):363–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plous, S. 1987. Perceptual Illusions and Military Realities: Results from a Computer-simulated Arms Race. Journal of Conflict Resolution 31 (1):5–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plous, S. 1988. Modeling the Nuclear Arms Race as a Perceptual Dilemma. Philosophy and Public Affairs 17(1):44–53.Google Scholar
Plous, S. 1993. The Nuclear Arms Race: Prisoner's Dilemma or Perceptual Dilemma? Journal of Peace Research 30 (2): 163–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posen, Barry R. 1984a. Measuring the European Conventional Balance: Coping with Complexity in Threat Assessment. International Security 9 (3):47–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posen, Barry R. 1984b. The Sources of Military Doctrine: France, Britain, and Germany Between the World Wars. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Posen, Barry R. 1993. The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict. Survival 35 (1):27–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. 1990. An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Richman, Alvin. 1991. Changing American Attitudes Toward the Soviet Union. Public Opinion Quarterly 55(1):135–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse-Kappen, Thomas. 1991. Did “Peace Through Strength” End the Cold War?: Lessons from INF. International Security 16 (1): 162–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse-Kappen, Thomas. 1994. Ideas Do Not Float Freely: Transnational Coalitions, Domestic Structures, and the End of the Cold War. International Organization 48 (2): 185–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagan, Scott D. 1994. The Perils of Proliferation: Organization Theory, Deterrence Theory, and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons. International Security 18 (4):66–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, George. 1993. Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Schweller, Randall L. 1996. Neorealism's Status Quo Bias: What Security Dilemma? Security Studies 5(3):90–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigelman, Lee. 1990. Disarming the Opposition: The President, the Public, and the INF Treaty. Public Opinion Quarterly 54 (1):37–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Jack. 1984. The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Spence, Michael. 1973. Job Market Signaling. Quarterly Journal of Economics 87 (3):355–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spirtas, Michael. 1996. A House Divided: Tragedy and Evil in Realist Theory. Security Studies 5 (3):385–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Janice Gross. 1991. Reassurance in International Conflict Management. Political Science Quarterly 106(3):431–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Janice Gross. 1994. Political Learning by Doing: Gorbachev as Uncommitted Thinker and Motivated Learner. International Organization 48 (2): 155–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thom, Françoise. 1989. The Gorbachev Phenomenon. London: Pinter Publishers.Google Scholar
Van Evera, Stephen. 1994. Hypotheses on Nationalism and War. International Security 18 (4):5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Evera, Stephen. 1998. Offense, Defense, and the Causes of War. International Security 22 (4):5–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walt, Stephen M. 1996. Revolution and War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Walter, Barbara F. 1997. The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement. International Organization 51(3):335–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, Hugh. 1989. Testing the Waters: Taking Risks to Gain Reassurance in Public Goods Games. Journal of Conflict Resolution 33 (2):274–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, Joel. 1999. Starting Small and Renegotiation. Journal of Economic Theory 85 (1):52–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 1998. Constructing Trust: The Political and Economic Roots of Ethnic and Regional Conflict. In Institutions and Social Order, edited by Soltan, Karol, Uslaner, Eric, and Haufler, Virginia, 163–200. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Wohlforth, William C. 1995. Realism and the End of the Cold War. International Security 19 (3):91–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar