The Complexity of Cooperation

Axelrod applies various models related to IPD to a variety of situations, drawing conclusions from these simulations about the ways in which groups form, adhere, oppose or join other groups, and other topics in the fields of genetic evolution, business, political science, military alliances, wars, and more. He has added introductions to these articles explaining what real-world issues drove his research.

Philosopher and political economist Francis Fukuyama, writing for Foreign Affairs, praises the book for showing that realist models, which assume that in situations lacking a single sovereign actor anarchy will necessarily result, are too simplistic. Fukuyuma expresses concern, however, that the game theory approaches aren't sufficiently complex to model real international relations, because they assume a world with large numbers of simple actors. Fukuyama holds that, instead, the real world consists of a small number of highly complex actors, thus potentially limiting the applicability of Axelrod's analysis.^[1]