Formal Models of Crisis Bargaining Applications in the Politics of Conflict

The problem with cheap talk communication is that it is free to lie in an effort to obtain a better outcome. What if signals were costly instead? This chapter investigates that question from the perspective of military mobilizations. We see that such mobilizations can credibly communicate a state’s resolve because less resolved types pay differential costs to mobilize. Unfortunately, this means that mobilizations are not as useful for revealing private information about the costs of war or a state’s martial effectiveness.