Theme GrunnMUN 2010
The theme of this year’s GrunnMUN conference will be: "Battle of the sexes, coordination or clash of global interest?".
Battle of the sexes is a game theory, often used by scholars to explain international relations. Imagine: a couple would like to go out one night. The man wants to go to a sports game and the woman prefers to visit the opera. Surprisingly, the man does not like the opera and prefers the soccergame. The woman despises sports and would love to see the more sophisticated opera. However, both place more value on giving in to the other than to visit their first choice all by them self and spend the night alone. This makes two outcomes the most likely. Either they go together to the sports or both go to the opera. One of them, in each case, would be most happy but together they are happier with this outcome than if they would not have coordinated their interests.
The same can be said for international politics. Multiple optimum outcomes can be discovered, but if states do not agree upon one, no solution will be found. For some conflicts, a coordination of interests can be the solution to resolve the conflict. However, if states agree to coordinate their interests, other states (or the woman who gets to go to the opera) gain relatively more. Will states in the end, coordinate their interest and serve the interest of the total international system or shall they choose the highest outcome for themselves?
