The Center for International Security and Cooperation is a center of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Arms Control Today, Vol. 9, page(s): 207-233
December 1988
Robert Axelrod's The Evolution of Cooperation has been widely acclaimed in the few years since its publication. Given its promise for promoting cooperation in ‘prisoner's dilemma games' (PDGs), such praise is unsurprising. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the tit-for-tat (TFT) strategy Axelrod recommends for achieving an evolution of cooperation in PD situations has application to the negotiation of arms control treaties.