Abstract

Madmen
Schell, Jonathan | June 2, 2003 issue

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The article discusses several issues in relation to the so-called madman theory and how it was used by some state leaders. Strategist Thomas Schelling called this policy as the rationality of irrationality. In this policy, a foe would believe in self-destructive threats because it believed that a leader might be lunatic enough to go over the edge deliberately. Former U.S. President Richard Nixon was one practitioner of this strategy when he threatened North Vietnam and the Soviet Union into compliance during his term. Another is Kim Jong Il of North Korea, who has announced threats of a nuclear war against the U.S.

See Also:

IRRATIONALISM (Philosophy); POLITICAL leadership; REASON; NUCLEAR weapons; KIM, Jong-Il; SCHELLING, Thomas; NIXON, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994
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