
Serdar GünerAtilim University · Department of International Relations
Serdar Güner
PhD
Affiliation: Bilkent University, February 1992 - August 2024; Atılım University, September 2024 -
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44
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Introduction
My research interests are interdisciplinary: they lie in intersections of the philosophy of science, international relations theories, game theory and in applications of game theory in real international interactions. My book "Art and IR Theory: Visual Semiotic Games" published by Springer in the series "Mathematics in Mind" combines game theory, structural realism, constructivism, abstract art, semiotics, and the philosophy of mind. I currently work on a book project on analytic IR theory.
Additional affiliations
February 1992 - April 2016
Education
October 1978 - January 1990
Publications
Publications (44)
The aim of this article is to develop Kenneth N. Waltz’s conceptualization of system structures based on the distribution of capabilities to those described by two traits at system-level: the distribution of capabilities across states and states’ geographic positions with respect to each other, that is, the contiguity configuration. The development...
This paper explains Hamas attack on the kibbutz Kfar-Aza using William Dray's "how is it possible" approach and develops the approach along with game theoretical thinking. Finally, it evaluates the attack in the context of global politics. Explanations come in different varieties. Explanation-what approach implies that it is sufficient to describe...
Abstraction connects abstract art and IR theories. The correspondence between the two realms stems from mental representation of essentials at levels of degree. An artist offers his/her subjective appreciation of worldly beauties in terms of colors, shapes, and the placement of these elements in a canvas and enjoys an upper hand in creating abstrac...
Interfaith dialogues are platforms to address the issues of common concern for different faiths and beliefs. In this article, we use game theory to draw attention to the tensions between representing one’s community and reaching out to the ‘other’ side in pursuit of a common goal. We investigate the role of uncertainty and trust in interfaith commu...
This article presents four analyses of an interaction between the middle-Bronze Age Pharaoh Nibmuarea and the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil as described in the Amarna letters (Moran [1992] The Amarna Letters, The Johns Hopkins Universiy Press, Baltimore, Maryland). Intent on denying the Pharaoh his daughter in marriage, the Babylonian king was fa...
This paper explains Hamas attack on the kibbutz Kfar-Aza using William Dray’s “how is it possible” approach and develops the approach along with game theoretical thinking. Finally, it evaluates the attack in the context of global politics. According to Jerusalem Post, a female Israeli soldier repeatedly reported Hamas activities in Gaza adjacent to...
The Niger River basin home to more than 100 million people invites rigorous techniques to evaluate water conflicts among riparian areas. Conflict categories of trigger, casualty, and weapon in the interval of 2000-2022 are associated with riparian areas, revealing alternative results. The correspondence analysis reveals a relationship between ripar...
The book proposes games using semiotics (visual semiotic games, VSGs) of Saussure and Peirce. It interprets equilibria of VSGs using philosophy of mind and theory of explanation. Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock paintings help to interpret IR theories of Structural Realism and Constructivism through VSGs.
One of the basic criticisms targeting game theory is that players’ preferences do not change over the course of the interaction. Wendt (1992, 416) notes that “In the traditional game-theoretic analysis of cooperation, even an iterated one, the structure of the game – of identities and interests – is exogenous to the interaction and, as such, does n...
Saussure (1916, 98) asserts that a linguistic sign emanates from an association between a concept and an acoustic image, the two elements of a sign:Saussure’s definition of linguistic signs finds a niche in visual terms. Following Saussure, I argue that a visual sign is not a painting but an IR concept the painting represents. The painting helps an...
This book has started with a simple question: could two international relations (IR) scholars coordinate by forming signs of theoretical propositions through abstract paintings? To answer the question, the book engages in the interpretation of central propositions of two IR theories constituting leading structuralist lenses to analyze IR, namely, S...
The elements of VSGs are the number of players, players’ information conditions, players’ strategies and actions, players’ preferences over game outcomes, players’ preferences over their actions leading to equilibrium or equilibria, and the specification of when the game ends. All VSGs are assumed to be two-player games of coordination. They model...
There are two categories of interpretations. The first category consists of broad insights Nash equilibria reveal under alternative philosophies of mind. The second category explores and clarifies the type of explanations VSG equilibria generate.
In Saussurean games, Row entertains beliefs about what beliefs Column has concerning Row’s strategies of accept and reject, and, similarly, Column entertains beliefs about what beliefs Row has concerning Column’s strategies of accept and reject. In Peircian games these coupled subjective beliefs are about three strategies, namely, icon, index, and...
The research agenda of the Discipline is context-dependent and sensitive to shockwaves such as world wars, 1973 Oil Crisis, Iranian 1979 revolution, Soviet Union’s dissolution, and 9/11 attacks. Unexpected global scourges push IR scholars to invent new theories or to change theories they use entirely (Güner 2012). One should expect the emergence of...
Current Ukrain-Russia conflict, NATO enlargement, China, Geography and Geopolitics
We focus on a key IR Theory article by Alexander Wendt (1992) and two Jackson Pollock paintings. Our aim is to identify meanings Pollock’s art communicates and reveals for Wendt (1992). It derives from an appeal to visual imagination and a desire for semiotic interpretation of Constructivist view of anarchy. The visual sign is an association such t...
Semiotics constitutes an untapped and interdisciplinary source of enrichment for the discipline of International Relations (IR) theory. We propose two visual metaphors to that effect to interpret the figure depicting the central claim of structural realism (SR) offered by late Kenneth Waltz who is one of the most disputed, read, and inspiring IR th...
Various balance and imbalance conditions among the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iran are analyzed to present how changes in the direction of conflict and cooperation disturb the regional balance in the Syria conflict. We find that given a stable hostility between the U.S. and Russia, and the stable friendship between Russia and Syria, Turkish p...
At the core of the power struggle among states key to Middle Eastern stability and global balance is the question of who controls whose natural gas flow via whose territories. The United States, Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iran are analyzed in this context to present how changing alliances have disrupted the regional balance in the Syria conflict. G...
JOURNAL OF GAME THEORY
This article proposes a simple evolutionary game to analyze the stability of states’ balancing and bandwagoning behavior towards the sole superpower called the unipole. The trajectories leading to evolutionarily stable strategies (ESSs) demonstrate possible alignment paths given environmental constraints of unipolar systems...
Syria is the perfect example of a failed state occupying territory, subjected to the controversial ambitions of foreign powers. It has been transformed into a theater of shifting alliance positions among numerous actors including the US, Russia, and Turkey. The trajectories of pipelines transporting natural gas reserves from the Persian Gulf to wor...
This work proposes a simple two-period interaction model to study EU-Turkey accession negotiations. Turkey perceives the EU as composed of two distinct groups with respect to its accession: traditional supporters and objectors. Supporters opt for either cooperation or defection in period one while objectors consistently oppose Turkish accession. Tu...
Güner, Serdar Ş . (2011) Religion and Preferences: A Decision-theoretic Explanation of Turkey’s New Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy Analysis, doi: 10.1111/j.1743-8594.2011.00152.x
Religious beliefs can affect preferences of decision makers who formulate and guide foreign policy. This article investigates the relationship between preferences affected...
http://www.e-ir.info/2012/06/21/a-short-note-on-the-use-of-game-theory-in-analyses-of-international-relations/
The issues of water and territory dominate relations between Syria and Turkey, upstream and downstream riparians in the Euphrates
and Tigris basin. This chapter propose an evolutionary game to explore eventual trajectories of riparian relations. Turkish
hawks are defined as those Turkish foreign policies that support no water concessions. Turkish d...
Unlike the previous contributions to this section on Models of International Negotiations this chapter deals with a concrete
and as yet unsolved international conflict, namely, that between Greece and Turkey over the breadth of territorial waters
in the Aegean Sea. Greece claims that it has the freedom to extend its territorial waters to 12 miles,...
Delimitation of the territorial waters and continental shelf in the Aegean Sea constitutes a constant source of conflict and produces recurrent crises between Greece and Turkey. This article explores directions that the Greek-Turkish dispute over the delimitation of territorial waters can take through an evolutionary game framework. Crises are foun...
Conflicts over the delimitation of territorial waters are abundant around the globe. Greece and Turkey, two NATO allies, are no exceptions. The delimitation of territorial waters and continental shelf, the status of islands, islets, and flight control zones and corridors in the Aegean Sea constitute constant sources of friction between them. We off...
The Amarna letters (1400–1350 B.C.) demonstrate that intricate balance-of-power politics was familiar to Middle Eastern rulers millennia ago (Moran, 1992). Egyptians, Hittites, Mittanians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and leaders of lesser kingdoms formed alliances on the basis of “brotherhood” or, in equivalent terms, on the basis of equality. The equa...
This chapter investigates possible alliances between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq in their dispute over water in the Euphrates-Tigris basin. A noncooperative game in extensive form models Turkish-Syrian interactions related to water and terrorism. Iraq is modeled as a dummy player having no choice in the game but benefiting from Turkish-Syrian concessio...
This paper proposes a simple two-person game of one-sided incomplete information in extensive form to understand strategic choices made in the Turkish-Syrian linkage between water and terrorism. Turkish intelligence established Syrian support of a terrorist group that aims at an independent Kurdish state in eastern Anatolia. Yet, Turkey frequently...
The issues of water and terrorism are often linked to each other in negotiations between Turkey and Syria, the upstream and the midstream riparians in the Euphrates River basin, respectively. This issue linkage and a deep rooted territorial conflict mark these countries’ bilateral relations. This article explains and predicts the riparians’ propens...
ran'ın İsrail'e saldırısı ve akabinde İsrail'in bu saldırıya karşı bir saldırıyla cevap vereceğini açıklaması Orta Doğu'da genişlemiş bir savaş ihtimalini arttırmıştır. Uluslararası sistemlerde, bir başka deyişle birbirleriyle etkileşimde bulunan devletlerde, denge istikrar getirir. İstikrarsızlık kimin kiminle bir diğerine zarar vereceğinin bilinm...
ran'ın İsrail'e saldırısı ve akabinde İsrail'in bu saldırıya karşı bir saldırıyla cevap vereceğini açıklaması Orta Doğu'da genişlemiş bir savaş ihtimalini arttırmıştır. Uluslararası sistemlerde, bir başka deyişle birbirleriyle etkileşimde bulunan devletlerde, denge istikrar getirir. İstikrarsızlık kimin kiminle bir diğerine zarar vereceğinin bilinm...
ran'ın İsrail'e saldırısı ve akabinde İsrail'in bu saldırıya karşı bir saldırıyla cevap vereceğini açıklaması Orta Doğu'da genişlemiş bir savaş ihtimalini arttırmıştır. Uluslararası sistemlerde, bir başka deyişle birbirleriyle etkileşimde bulunan devletlerde, denge istikrar getirir. İstikrarsızlık kimin kiminle bir diğerine zarar vereceğinin bilinm...