World War II through the 1970s Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

World War II through the 1970s - Essay Example Other names given to this period after the world war are â€Å"long boom† and â€Å"golden age of capitalism†. It was then that the concept of economic development came into being, to eradicate poverty from nations (Kozulj, 2003). Many historic turning points took place after the World War 2 which left their impact on the history of mankind. Two Historical turning points during this period First historical turning point One of the many historical points that took place after the World War 2 was the â€Å"water scandal†, which took place in United States of America. The water scandal was a serious political scandal that took place during 1972 to 1974. Richard .M. Nixon was the president of America during this period. This political scandal changed the life of many people associated with it and it also changed the view of the American citizens toward American politics. Many serious issues were revealed during this scandal as it unveiled many dark strategies that to ok place in the political system of America. ... The war destroyed millions of life and weapons of mass destruction had a long lasting effect on the lives of the people. Some crimes committed during wars were at the crest of brutality and were considered against humanity. When the war concluded the nations realized that there is a need of an international institution which can prevent the world from such a massive destruction. Thus, the establishment United Nations Organization came into being on 1945. Effects of the above turning points on America’s current society, economy, politics, and culture Effects of Watergate scandal on America The â€Å"Watergate scandal† had a massive effect on the society, economy, politics and culture of United States. These effects were so immense that they still have their traces on the minds of people. The â€Å"Watergate Scandal† made people realizes that their blind trust on leadership may lead them to disastrous effects. The people realized that there is a need of a transpare nt political system, which can keep them updated about all the activities of their political leader. The Watergate Scandal still has its effects on modern America. The political parties after this scandal tried to change the perception of American politics. This limited the presidential power. This scandal also helped in expelling the Republican Government, which resulted in some new rights given to the people. The tax rate decreased and more libertarians’ views were encouraged. The Congress struggled to make the government more transparent for the people. Despite of all these positive steps taken which influenced America’s current society, economy, politics, and culture, the Watergate scandal has created distrust in the mind of people for their government.

Project Management Methodology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Project Management Methodology - Essay Example There are nearly four to five process groups in the project management methodologies. The process group comprises initiation, planning and design, execution, monitoring and controlling and closing (Haughey, 2012). The main objective of the report is to describe the project, which is â€Å"Privatisation of QinetiQ† by focusing upon the characteristics of the project that impact the choice of project management approach. The project will also discuss the use of numerous planning tools as well as techniques such as work breakdown structure, Gantt chart, critical path method as well as PERT approach to scheduling that has been used for this project. The report will proceed by identifying various risks that have been associated with the project and will discuss the utilisation of risk management methodology. The report will conclude by reflecting on what has been researched for this assignment and any implication with regard to bringing in changes for current or future practice as a project manager. QinetiQ is a defence technology business. It has been acknowledged that the privatisation of QinetiQ took place in two phases i.e. sale of 33.8 percent business to the Caryle Group and sale of 3.7 percent of the business to the management as well as employees. The total of 37.5 % of the business was sold in the year 2003. The main motto behind the privatisation was to assist in creating a business ahead of flotation on the London Stock Exchange that happened in the year 2006. The privatisation activity had assisted in gaining approximately  £576 million. It has further been found that Ministry of Defence has a holding of 19 percent in the business valued at  £235 million in the year 2007 (National Audit Office, 2008). QinetiQ possesses a significant role in conducting research and in suggesting the Department on the creation and the procurement of equipment. It also has a role

Concepts of the Holy Spirit

Concepts of the Holy Spirit Pneumatology I believe in the Holy Spirit, that He is the third Person of the Trinity, He is fully God, He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and He carries out the work of sustaining and empowering believers to live properly as children of God The Person of the Holy Spirit: I believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and, as such, is deity (Acts 5:3-4). He exists co-equally and co-eternally with the Father and the Son (2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Pet. 1:1-2). His divinity is shown in how He is presented as equal with the Father and the Son (Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 12:4-6), by His names Spirit of God or Spirit of Christ (Gen. 1:2; Rom. 8:9), by His ability to give new life (John 6:63; Rom. 1:4; 8:2-11; 2 Cor. 3:6) and by His full knowledge of the thoughts of God (1 Cor. 2:10-11). He is personal in nature. He is said to understand the mind of God and to search out all things (1 Cor. 2:10-11) which emphasizes knowledge and intellect. He has a will and He chose to distribute spiritual gifts to the Church according to His will (1 Cor. 12:11). He commands believers to do certain tasks (Acts 8:29). He testifies of Jesus and bears witness that He is indeed from the Father and does so for those He indwells (Jn. 15:26-27). He teaches believers (Jn. 14:26) a nd guides them in all the truth of God (Jn. 16:13). He can be resisted (Acts 7:51), lied to (Acts 5:19), grieved (Eph. 4:30), and quenched (1 Thess. 5:19). The Work of the Holy Spirit: I believe that the Holy Spirit was active in creation (Gen. 1:2) and in empowering specific Old Testament people for particular acts of service (Num. 11:26-29; 24:2; Judg. 14:6). He was instrumental in the giving of prophesy and Scripture. Ezekiel said that the Spirit came into me causing him to speak the truth to Gods people (Ez. 2:2). The Holy Spirit was involved in the virgin birth of Christ (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35), came upon Jesus at His baptism (Matt. 3:16-17), and strengthened Jesus throughout His earthly ministry (Matt. 4:1; 12:28). I believe that the Holy Spirit superintended the writing of the Scripture to ensure the precise results God wanted (2 Peter 1:20-21). The Spirit works in the lives of unbelievers convicting them of their sinful state before God and of the impending judgment (John 16:8). The Spirits work in believers heightened at Pentecost (Acts 2). The Spirit works in New Testament believers for the glory of Christ (John 16:13-14). He is responsible for regeneration (John 3:3, 5; Titus 3:5; 2 Thess. 2:13). He indwells every believer at conversion (Rom. 8:9) and is involved in incorporating believers into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The Spirit seals believers until the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). He is the guarantee of future salvation (Eph. 1:13-14; Rom. 8:23). The Spirit empowers believers for daily living and for service (Acts 1:8; Gal. 5:16-25), provides assurance of salvation (Rom. 8: 16), is intricately involved in the sanctification and spiritual maturity of the believer as the Christians helper and comforter (Jn. 14:16), and leads believers to be holy (Rom. 8:13-15). Baptism in the Spirit is a one-time experience for each believer that happens at conversion (Acts 1:5; 2:38; 1 Cor. 12:13). From conversion on, each believer is to be strongly influenced by the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). The believer never receives more of the Spirit after conversion, but throughout the Christian life, the Spirit ought to influence the believer more and more as the believer responds rightly to the Spirits work through the Word. The Spirit promotes unity in the body of Christ through the various gifts (1 Cor. 12). Spiritual gifts include individuals specially given by Christ such as pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11), as well as abilities endowed by the Spirit for the good of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Pet. 4:10-11). Apostles and prophets formed a unique role in the formation of the church (Eph. 2:20) and still minister to the church today through the Scriptures they wrote. However, there are no apostles and prophets today. The Spirit gives gifts to individual believers as He wills (1 Cor. 12:11). The record of Scripture (Acts 2, 10, 19; Heb. 2:1-4) and church history suggest that several of the gifts such as healing, miracles, and tongues were confirmatory and temporal in nature, in that they confirmed Gods unique working through the apostles and the early church, but in a short while fell off the scene. What is most important is that love drives all use of the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 13), that gifts are practiced in accordance with Scriptural guidelines (1 Cor. 14:40), and that believers focus on edifying others through their God-given abilities and gifts (1 Cor. 14:12, 26), rather than tearing others down and exalting themselves. Ecclesiology I believe that the church, of which Christ is the head, is one universal and spiritual body, gathered in local bodies, to whom has been committed the ordinances of believers baptism and the Lords Supper, with the corporate purpose of glorifying God through worship, the edification of the saints, and the communication of the gospel to the world. The Universal Church: I believe that all those who place their faith in Christ are baptized in the Holy Spirit and placed into the church (1 Cor. 12:12-13), which is one universal and spiritual body (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 4:4-6). Christ is both the builder of the church (Matt. 16:18) and the head of the church, giving direction to the church and ruling over the church (Eph. 5:23; Col 1:18). Christ nourishes and cherishes the church (Eph. 5:29-30), adds numerically to the church (Acts 2:47), and causes spiritual growth within the church (Eph. 4:15-16). As the body of Christ, the church exists to bring glory to God (Eph. 3:20-21) and to represent Christ to the world (John 17:18; Eph. 1:22-23). The church brings glory to God through worship (John 4:23-24; Col. 3:16-17), through building itself up in the faith (Acts 2:41-42; Heb. 10:24-25), through submission to the Word (James 1:19-25; 1 Pet. 1:22-2:3), and through communicating the gospel to the world (Matt. 28:19-20). I believe that the church, as a united international body of Jewish and Gentile believers, is a mystery, not fully disclosed until this age (Eph. 3:3-6; Col. 1:25-27). The church is testified to by Jesus (Mat. 16:18-19; 18:15-17; Acts 1:5), began at Pentecost (Acts 2), but will not be fully completed until Christ comes to take up His bride (1 Thess. 4:13-18). While the church is a part of the people of God of all ages who have been saved by grace through faith (Rom. 4:16; Gal. 3:29), the church is similar to, but distinct from, the nation Israel (Rom. 11:23-27; 1 Cor. 10:32), which still has a role in Gods purposes. The Local Church: I believe that the local church is the visible representation of the universal church, although believers may at times exist outside of a local church and false converts may at times be present in a local church (1 John 2:19). The local church gathers in organized (1 Cor. 14:40), local (Acts 11:22; Acts 13:1) assemblies for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:11-16), all to the glory of God. The local church is a fellowship of true followers of Jesus Christ who are individually priests before God (1 Pet. 2:5, 9) and is characterized by unity in diversity (1 Cor. 12; Rom. 12:4-8). Every believer ought to be accountable to (Matt. 18:15-17) and actively involved in a Bible-preaching local church, so that he or she may participate in the edification of the saints and be built up personally into the likeness of Christ (Heb. 10:23-25). I believe that the local church has been given apostles and prophets as foundational gifts and that the local church still benefits from these gifted people through the Scriptures (Eph. 4:11; 2:20). I believe that the local church has been given two primary offices for today: elders or overseers (often called pastors) (Eph. 4:11; 1 Tim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:1-2) and deacons (Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:8-13). Elders and deacons must meet certain qualifications to serve in these capacities (Titus 1:5-9; 1 Tim. 3:1-13). The elders primary role in the body is to lead the flock spiritually through his own example, through prayer, and through feeding the flock through the preaching and teaching of the Word (1 Pet. 5:2; Acts 20:28). The deacons are those whose primary role is to serve the body in whatever way is needed. In the early church, women were actively involved in church ministry, both publicly and privately, in such capacities as teaching women (Titus 2:3-5), evangelizing and discipling believers (Acts 18:26; 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:14-15), laboring in gospel ministry (Rom. 16:3-4; Phil. 4:3), being a servant and patron of the church (Rom. 16:1-3), and praying and prophesying in public worship (1 Cor. 11:2-16). At the same time, though women play critical roles in the life of the church, both privately and publicly, the New Testament also upholds a distinction for the role of women in regard to the public ministry of proclaiming the Word (1 Tim. 2:11-15). Only men are to hold the office of overseer (1 Tim. 3:1-7) and to exercise authority in the church over men in the public teaching of the Word (1 Tim. 2:11-15). I believe that the local church has been given two ordinances: baptism (Matt. 28:19) and the Lords Supper (1 Cor. 11:23-32). Baptism is to be done soon after conversion and by immersion in water (Acts 2:41; 8:36-38; 10:47; 16:33). It is a public, external signification of the inward change that God has worked in the heart (Rom. 6:2-4). The believer has died to sin and has been raised to walk in the newness of life. The Lords Supper also functions as a symbolic reminder of the redemptive work of Christ (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:24-25). It is to be a time of unity, confession and forgiveness, and a time of looking forward to Christs return (1 Cor. 11:23-32). The ordinances point the believer back to the cross and Christs transforming work in our lives and in this way serve to strengthen believers and to encourage them to continue in the faith. I believe that the local church and its members are to be holy and unstained by the world (James 1:27; 1 John 2:15-17; 1 Pet. 1:13-16). In addition, the Scriptures clearly affirm that there will be many false teachers who try to lead the church away from Christ (2 Pet. 2:1-3; 2 Tim. 4:3-4). I believe that the local church and its members must beware of and repudiate false teaching (1 John 4:1; Rom. 16:17; 2 Cor. 6:14-17). I believe that the local church and its members are also to be separated from erring brothers (2 Thess. 3:6-15; 1 Cor. 5:9-11; Titus 3:10-11). This separation is to be practiced through the discipline of wandering members in the hopes of restoration (1 Cor. 5; 2 Thess. 3:15; Matt. 18:15-17; Gal. 6:1-2). This separation also ought to be practiced at an ecclesiastical level to preserve the truth of the gospel. It is our sharing in the gospel and in the Spirit that creates unity in the body of Christ (Eph. 4:1-6). If the clarity of the gospel is at stake, a firm stand must be made that clearly identifies the church and its members with the pure gospel of grace (Gal. 1:6-10; 2:11-14; Phil. 3:1-3). Eschatology I believe that Jesus is coming again as King and Judge to be united with His Bride, to inflict judgment on all those who have not obeyed the gospel, and to establish His kingdom in fulfillment of the promises of Scripture. The Eternal State: I believe that physical death involves the separation of the soul from the body (James 2:26; Phil. 1:22-24). For a believer, death means the immediate entrance of the spirit into the presence of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23). The spirit of the unrighteous enters hell, a place of torment and punishment (Luke 16:19-31; 2 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 20:13-14). This intermediate state is a conscious existence for all who die as they await their bodily resurrection the righteous unto imperishable, glorified bodies (Rom. 8:10-11; 1 Cor. 15:24-54) while the unrighteous unto eternal disgrace and corruption (Rev. 20:11-15; John 5:28-29). The righteous will be judged and will receive the rewards due them in accordance with their works (2 Cor. 5:9-10; Rom. 14:10-12); the unrighteous will stand condemned at the Great White Throne and be cast into the lake of fire for eternal punishment and separation from God (2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 20:11-15). The punishment of the wicked will be conscious and eternal (Ma tt. 10:28; Luke 16:23-28) and will be worse for those who had been given greater privilege (Matt. 11:20-24; Rom. 2:5). The Heart of Eschatology: I believe that Jesus is coming again to be united with His bride (1 Thess. 4:13-18) to inflict vengeance on those who have not obeyed the gospel (2 Thess. 1:5-10), to crush His enemies, and to establish His worldwide kingdom (Acts 1:5-11; Rev. 19-22). Believers ought to wait with eager anticipation for the coming of the Lord (James 5:7-9). Unbelievers should repent while there is still time since God has appointed Jesus as Judge (Acts 17:30-31). For believers, the Lords return ought to inspire hope in the midst of suffering and holiness in practical life (Rom. 8:18-25; 2 Peter 3:11-13; 1 John 3:1-3). Eschatological Chronology: While I believe that the Scripture does point toward the chronology below, I also recognize that the Scriptures are not explicit in regard to prophetic chronology and that church history also points to a lack of consensus on this issue. With this said, I affirm the following view of prophetic chronology. I believe that Gods plan is to bring everything in the universe into subjection to Christ (Col. 1:19-20; Eph. 1:9-10). I believe that the next event in Gods prophetic plan is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His saints (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Those who have died in Christ will be instantly resurrected, and those still alive will be caught up together with them and be transformed into glorious new bodies (1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 Thess. 4:13-18). Following the rapture, the seven year tribulation will commence (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15-31). During this time, there will be an outpouring of Gods wrath like none other in the history of the earth (Rev. 6:15-17; Is. 24; Jer. 30:7; Rev. 6-19). This will be a time in which Satan will persecute Israel with fierce destruction and deceive the nations with great success (Dan. 12:1-3; Jer. 30:7; 2 Thess. 2:3-12). I believe that at the end of the tribulation period Jesus will physically return (Acts 1:11) to the earth to defeat Antichrist and his forces (Rev. 19:11-21), to bind Satan and seal him in the abyss (Rev. 20:1-3), and to rule the world from Jerusalem for 1000 years (Mic. 4:1-4; Zech. 14:9-11; Rev. 20:4-6). These thousand years, known as the millennium, will be a time of peace, prosperity, blessing, and righteousness (Is. 11:6-10; 65:20-25), and will ultimately fulfill Gods covenant promises to Israel (Is. 9:6-7; Ezek. 37:21-28; Jer. 31:31-34; Rom. 11:25-26) as the Offspring of David rules the whole earth from His throne in Jerusalem (Is. 2:2-4; 11:1-5), along with His people (Dan. 7:21-22; Rev. 20:4). The millennium will be brought to an end with the final, brief release of Satan (Rev. 20:7). Satan will once more deceive and gather together the wicked against Christ and His saints at Jerusalem (Rev. 20:7-9). Christ will destroy them and cast Satan into the lake of fire. The wicked wi ll be resurrected bodily to be judged at the Great White Throne and then will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-15) to suffer eternal punishment (Matt. 13:42; 25:41-46). I believe that these heavens and earth will be burned with intense heat (2 Pet. 3:10) and that God will create a new heaven and a new earth where believers will dwell eternally and joyfully in His presence, free from all sin and sorrow (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-22:5).

The Theme of Justice in King Lear Essay -- Papers

The Theme of Justice in King Lear Justice is a balance of misfortune and good fortune; right and wrong according to motives and circumstances of the individuals under judgement. To be just we must consider why they did it and balance out all the evidence and facts and decide on a punishment depending on these. Types of justice that exist in society include criminal justice, legal justice, vigilante justice, natural justice and divine justice. As King Lear is a brutal play, filled with human cruelty and many awful disasters, the play's terrible events raise an obvious question for the characters, namely whether there is any possibility of justice in the world. Various characters offer their opinions. Towards the end of the play Gloucester says: "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / they kill us for their sport," Here, he has realized it is foolish for humankind to assume that the natural world works in parallel with social or moral justice because ultimately, the gods will do with us what they will regardless of whether or not it is just. Edgar, on the other hand, insists that: "the gods are just," optimistically believing that individuals must ultimately get what they deserve. However, in the end, we are left with only a terrifying uncertainty; although the wicked die, the good die along with them, leaving us with the awful image of Lear cradling Cordelia's body in his arms unable to accept the fact that she has suffered such an inexplicable injustice. There is goodness in theworld of the play, but there is also madness, evil and death, and it is difficult to tell which triumphs in the end. The purpose o... ...n are clever-or at least clever enough to flatter their father in the play's opening scene-and, early in the play, their bad behaviour toward Lear seems matched by his own pride and temper. But any sympathy that the audience can muster for them evaporates quickly, first when they turn their father out into the storm at the end of Act II. Goneril and Regan are, in a sense, personifications of evil-they have no conscience, only appetite. It is this greedy ambition that enables them to crush all opposition and make themselves mistresses of Britain. Ultimately, however, this same appetite brings about their undoing. Their desire for power is satisfied, but both harbour desires for Edmund, which destroys their alliance and eventually leads them to destroy each another. Evil, the play suggests, inevitably turns in on itself.

Counselor Essay Essay

Michael is a Case Manager within Spectrum Health hospitals and has been for four years. Michael is twenty-eight years old and enjoys doing his job although he has stated that it can be difficult at times. Michael stated that sometimes there is over time when other employees call in and case load can be heavy at times. Michael stated that every so often he has to wear a pager so employees within the hospital can get ahold of them when emergent issues arise. On call is every third weekend and four days out of each month where Michael is on call 24/7. As Michael punches in for the day, he meets with patients that are either just admitted or ready for discharge. Michael will help patients gain what they expect within the hospital so they will be pleased with the kind of care they received while in the hospital. Michael will also help patients that are ready to be discharged gain everything needed for their home after they are discharged. Things such as canes, walkers, commodes, home care , Dr. Visit’s, etc. As I asked if Michael has every experience burnout he stated that he has felt burned out before and even a little overwhelmed when he is placed on call for a few days. Michael has never thought about quitting his job but he has felt the need to take a few days off before just to gain a clear mind and get back to work. One stage of burn out Michael has experienced would be stage three in which that is frustration. Frustration comes within Michael when he is unable to complete every task that is expected of him. Michael has felt frustrated before when he is given too much and not enough time to complete every task. Michael strives to do his best within his position and sometimes that is not enough because as he gains too much work, he cannot spend the time needed with the patients to ensure proper  care is being achieved while the patient is in the hospital. Michael often sets up agendas for his work and how to get the work done in a timely manner so he does not get frustrated when things don’t get done or issues arise. Michael relieves frustration this way because he is able to visualize what he needs to do and what things to do first. Michael often takes times off from work in order to not get frustrated within his position. Michael will spend time with his family and while at home he will not speak of work so that he can enjoy family time and not think of work while relaxing. Burnout is defined as an internal psychological experience that involves feelings, attitudes, motives and expectations. Burnout means the energy of an individual has been consumed by helping others. Energy crisis occurs when the psychic demand exceeds the supply. Burnout is often experienced with a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion caused by a long-term involvement within an emotionally demanding situation. Burnout is often accompanied by physical depletion, feelings of helplessness, disillusionment, negative self-concept and negative attitudes toward employment, people and life in itself. Burnout represents a breaking point where it’s hard for an individual to cope with the environment surrounding them. Compassion fatigue is often caused by a work related stress and it is also an increase of loss in compassion over a period of time. Compassion fatigue can share similar symptoms of burnout but just not in an as severe way. There are many ways burnout can occur; Burnout often comes in blocks that include Role ambiguity or the lack of clarity concerning rights, responsibilities, methods, goals, status and accountability toward themselves. Role conflict is the significance of a  demand placed on the individual that are incompatible, inappropriate and inconsistent within the values or ethics. Role overload is the quantity and quality of demands placed on the individual that are too great. Inconsequentiality is the feeling of helplessness, the individual may feel that no matter what they do they are not good enough they gain little  recognition, accomplishment, appreciation or success. Isolation means that individual may lacking in support or has minimal support and the last one is Autonomy, where the ability to make decision on what they will do and how they will deal with their patients may be affected by their place of employment. Signs of burnout may include tardiness, dreading work, turning to drug s or alcohol, withdrawing from friends or family, clockwatching, depression, sudden change in weight, suicide or homicide thoughts or attempts just to name a few. Burnout also comes in stages, there are four main stages of burnout that can occur as an employee tries there absolute best within the position they have accepted within any organization. Stage one is enthusiasm, where the employee enters the job with high hopes and unrealistic expectations. If the employee is not tempered by orientations, training and realistic expectations the Human Service work may lead to the second stage which is stagnation. Stage two is stagnation, where the employee starts to feel that personal, financial, and career needs are not met. This may happen as the employee visualizes other employees moving on faster than themselves, an increase in pressure at home, financial obligations increasing and lack of employee reinforcement from doing the job well. As these are not met or taken care of, burnout can lead to the next stage of frustration. Stage three is frustration, where the employee may doubt their Caretaker Interview 5 effectiveness, values or impact of their efforts within the organization. One employee’s frustration may hold a domino effect toward others because the effect of burnout are contagious within an environment. Frustration can be dealt with by arranging workshops and support groups to increase awareness and generate problem solving as a group effort. If frustration is not taken care of within a positive manner, frustration can turn into Apathy. Stage four is Apathy, where the employee meets the feeling of actually being burned out. The employee may become immobile, in denial and may be in stage of crisis. As an employee meets this stage of burnout, psychotherapy may be needed to reverse the actions of burnout and to get the employee at a positive state of mind.

Games Theory Essay

In game theory, Nash equilibrium (named after John Forbes Nash, who proposed it) is a solution concept of a game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his own strategy unilaterally. If each player has chosen a strategy and no player can benefit by changing his or her strategy while the other players keep theirs unchanged, then the current set of strategy choices and the corresponding payoffs constitute Nash equilibrium. Stated simply, Amy and Phil are in Nash equilibrium if Amy is making the best decision she can, taking into account Phil’s decision, and Phil is making the best decision he can, taking into account Amy’s decision. Likewise, a group of players is in Nash equilibrium if each one is making the best decision that he or she can, taking into account the decisions of the others. However, Nash equilibrium does not necessarily mean the best payoff for all the players involved; in many cases, all the players might improve their payoffs if they could somehow agree on strategies different from the Nash equilibrium: e.g., competing businesses forming a cartel in order to increase their profits. The prisoner’s dilemma is a fundamental problem in game theory that demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in both their best interests to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker formalized the game with prison sentence payoffs and gave it the â€Å"prisoner’s dilemma† name (Poundstone, 1992). A classic example of the prisoner’s dilemma (PD) is presented as follows: Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated the prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal. If one testifies for the prosecution against the other (defects) and the other remains silent (cooperates), the defector goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full one-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only one month in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a three-month sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act? If we assume that each player cares only about minimizing his or her own time in jail, then the prisoner’s dilemma forms a non-zero-sum game in which two players may each either cooperate with or defect from (betray) the other player. In this game, as in most game theory, the only concern of each individual player (prisoner) is maximizing his or her own payoff, without any concern for the other player’s payoff. The unique equilibrium for this game is a Pareto-suboptimal solution, that is, rational choice leads the two players to both play defect, even though each player’s individual reward would be greater if they both played cooperatively. In the classic form of this game, cooperating is strictly dominated by defecting, so that the only possible equilibrium for the game is for all players to defect. No matter what the other player does, one player will always gain a greater payoff by playing defect. Since in any situation playing defect is more beneficial than cooperating, all rational players will play defect, all things being equal. In the iterated prisoner’s dilemma, the game is played repeatedly. Thus each player has an opportunity to punish the other player for previous non-cooperative play. If the number of steps is known by both players in advance, economic theory says that the two players should defect again and again, no matter how many times the game is played. Only when the players play an indefinite or random number of times can cooperation be an equilibrium (technically a subgame perfect equilibrium), meaning that both players defecting always remains an equilibrium and there are many other equilibrium outcomes. In this case, the incentive to defect can be overcome by the threat of punishment. In casual usage, the label â€Å"prisoner’s dilemma† may be applied to situations not strictly matching the formal criteria of the classic or iterative games, for instance, those in which two entities could gain important benefits from cooperating or suffer from the failure to do so, but find it merely difficult or expensive, not necessarily impossible, to coordinate their activities to achieve cooperation. Strategy for the classic prisoner’s dilemma The classical prisoner’s dilemma can be summarized thus: Prisoner B stays silent (cooperates) Prisoner B confesses (defects) Prisoner A stays silent (cooperates) Each serves 1 month Prisoner A: 1 year Prisoner B: goes free Prisoner A confesses (defects) Prisoner A: goes free Prisoner B: 1 year Each serves 3 months Imagine you are player A. If player B decides to stay silent about committing the crime then you are better off confessing, because then you will get off free. Similarly, if player B confesses then you will be better off confessing, since then you get a sentence of 3 months rather than a sentence of 1 year. From this point of view, regardless of what player B does, as player A you are better off confessing. One says that confessing (defecting) is the dominant strategy. As Prisoner A, you can accurately say, â€Å"No matter what Prisoner B does, I personally am better off confessing than staying silent. Therefore, for my own sake, I should confess.† However, if the other player acts similarly then you both confess and both get a worse sentence than you would have gotten by both staying silent. That is, the seemingly rational self-interested decisions lead to worse sentences—hence the seeming dilemma. In game theory, this demonstrates that in a non-zero-sum game a Nash equilibrium need not be a Pareto optimum. Although they are not permitted to communicate, if the prisoners trust each other then they can both rationally choose to remain silent, lessening the penalty for both of them. We can expose the skeleton of the game by stripping it of the prisoner framing device. The generalized form of the game has been used frequently in experimental economics. The following rules give a typical realization of the game. There are two players and a banker. Each player holds a set of two cards, one printed with the word â€Å"Cooperate† (as in, with each other), the other printed with â€Å"Defect† (the standard terminology for the game). Each player puts one card face-down in front of the banker. By laying them face down, the possibility of a player knowing the other player’s selection in advance is eliminated (although revealing one’s move does not affect the dominance analysis[1]). At the end of the turn, the banker turns over both cards and gives out the payments accordingly. Given two players, â€Å"red† and â€Å"blue†: if the red player defects and the blue player cooperates, the red player gets the Temptation to Defect payoff of 5 points while the blue player receives the Sucker’s payoff of 0 points. If both cooperate they get the Reward for Mutual Cooperation payoff of 3 points each, while if they both defect they get the Punishment for Mutual Defection payoff of 1 point. The checker board payoff matrix showing the payoffs is given below. These point assignments are given arbitrarily for illustration. It is possible to generalize them, as follows: Canonical PD payoff matrix Cooperate Defect Cooperate R, R S, T Defect T, S P, PWhere T stands for Temptation to defect, R for Reward for mutual cooperation, P for Punishment for mutual defection and S for Sucker’s payoff. To be defined as prisoner’s dilemma, the following inequalities must hold: T > R > P > S This condition ensures that the equilibrium outcome is defection, but that cooperation Pareto dominates equilibrium play. In addition to the above condition, if the game is repeatedly played by two players, the following condition should be added.[2] 2 R > T + S If that condition does not hold, then full cooperation is not necessarily Pareto optimal, as the players are collectively better off by having each player alternate between Cooperate and Defect. These rules were established by cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter and form the formal canonical description of a typical game of prisoner’s dilemma. A simple special case occurs when the advantage of defection over cooperation is independent of what the co-player does and cost of the co-player’s defection is independent of one’s own action, i.e. T+S = P+R. The iterated prisoner’s dilemma If two players play prisoner’s dilemma more than once in succession and they remember previous actions of their opponent and change their strategy accordingly, the game is called iterated prisoner’s dilemma. The iterated prisoner’s dilemma game is fundamental to certain theories of human cooperation and trust. On the assumption that the game can model transactions between two people requiring trust, cooperative behaviour in populations may be modelled by a multi-player, iterated, version of the game. It has, consequently, fascinated many scholars over the years. In 1975, Grofman and Pool estimated the count of scholarly articles devoted to it at over 2,000. The iterated prisoner’s dilemma has also been referred to as the â€Å"Peace-War game†. If the game is played exactly N times and both players know this, then it is always game theoretically optimal to defect in all rounds. The only possible Nash equilibrium is to always defect. The proof is inductive: one might as well defect on the last turn, since the opponent will not have a chance to punish the player. Therefore, both will defect on the last turn. Thus, the player might as well defect on the second-to-last turn, since the opponent will defect on the last no matter what is done, and so on. The same applies if the game length is unknown but has a known upper limit. Unlike the standard prisoner’s dilemma, in the iterated prisoner’s dilemma the defection strategy is counterintuitive and fails badly to predict the behavior of human players. Within standard economic theory, though, this is the only correct answer. The superrational strategy in the iterated prisoners dilemma with fixed N is to cooperate against a superrational opponent, and in the limit of large N, experimental results on strategies agree with the superrational version, not the game-theoretic rational one. For cooperation to emerge between game theoretic rational players, the total number of rounds N must be random, or at least unknown to the players. In this case always defect may no longer be a strictly dominant strategy, only a Nash equilibrium. Amongst results shown by Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann in his 1959 paper, rational players repeatedly interacting for indefinitely long games can sustain the cooperative outcome.