The use and abuse of game theory in international relations - The theory of moves

The author argues that the theory of moves, which has gained popularity in recent years as an alternative to game-theoretic analysis of strategic inte raction, is fundamentally flawed. The theory's adherents argue that it make s theoretical progress by endogenizing the structure of games and introduci ng new ways of analyzing repeated interactions. The author analyzes the the ory of moves from a game-theoretic perspective and challenges its theoretic al claims. The author then reanalyzes several recent articles that have use d the theory of moves, showing that its application to empirical cases is s trained and that game theory can provide models that do a better job of fit ting the stories the authors tell about them.