Trust, Reassurance, and Cooperation

2000/01/01 by Andrew Kydd · 271 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Business #Cold war #Computer science #Computer security #Context (archaeology) #Economic Sanctions and International Relations #Economics #History #International Relations and Foreign Policy #Law #Law and economics #Political Conflict and Governance #Political science #Politics #Public relations #Trustworthiness

paper · doi:10.1162/002081800551190

published in International Organization 54(2), 325-357 (University of Cambridge)

openalex publication_date 2000/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

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.

Citations

• Rationalist explanations for war
• The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement

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• `To Put Oneself into the other Fellow's Place': John Herz, the Security Dilemma and the Nuclear Age
• Winning Hearts and Minds? How the United States Reassured During the Russo-Ukrainian War
• Unpacking the Paradoxes of Trust in Uncertain Times
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• Peace Talk and Conflict Traps
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• Ukraine’s Strategic Interactions with the EU and Russia during the Turbulent Month of the Crimean Annexation
• NATO’s Nuclear Types: Vulnerability, Defense Investment, and Alliance Strategy Preferences
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