Scenario 17-3.

Consider two countries, Kinglandia and Rovinastan, that are engaged in an arms race. Each country must decide whether to build new weapons or to disarm existing weapons. Each country prefers to have more arms than the other because a large arsenal gives it more influence in world affairs. But each country also prefers to live in a world safe from the other country's weapons. The following table shows the possible outcomes for each decision combination. The numbers in each cell represent the country's ranking of the outcome (10 = best outcome, 1 = worst outcome).
-Refer to Scenario 17-3. Building new weapons is a dominant strategy for
A)Kinglandia, but not for Rovinastan.
B)Rovinastan, but not for Kinglandia.
C)both Kinglandia and Rovinastan.
D)neither Kinglandia nor Rovinastan.

Question

Scenario 17-3.
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Consider two countries, Kinglandia and Rovinastan, that are engaged in an arms race. Each country must decide whether to build new weapons or to disarm existing weapons. Each country prefers to have more arms than the other because a large arsenal gives it more influence in world affairs. But each country also prefers to live in a world safe from the other country's weapons. The following table shows the possible outcomes for each decision combination. The numbers in each cell represent the country's ranking of the outcome (10 = best outcome, 1 = worst outcome). 
-Refer to Scenario 17-3. Building new weapons is a dominant strategy for
A)Kinglandia, but not for Rovinastan. 
B)Rovinastan, but not for Kinglandia. 
C)both Kinglandia and Rovinastan. 
D)neither Kinglandia nor Rovinastan.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Building new weapons is a dominant strategy for both Kinglandia and Rovinastan. This is because no matter what the other country decides, building new weapons will always result in a better outcome for the country. For example, if Kinglandia builds new weapons and Rovinastan disarms their existing weapons, Kinglandia will have the best possible outcome with a ranking of 10 and Rovinastan will have the worst possible outcome with a ranking of 1. Similarly, if Kinglandia builds new weapons and Rovinastan also builds new weapons, Kinglandia will still have a better outcome with a ranking of 9 compared to Rovinastan's ranking of 8. Therefore, building new weapons is the dominant strategy for both countries.

Scenario 17-3. ​

Scenario 17-3.