Question

During the Great War of 1914 – 18, German and British soldiers engaged in trench warfare where units faced each other across the trenches for long periods of time. Instead of following official orders to shoot each other as often as possible, some units would establish a “live and let live” policy with the other side where they could walk above ground in safety and even fraternize with the enemy. Let the strategy of a German (and British) soldier be either “shoot” or “not shoot”. State the equilibrium (trigger) strategies employed by German and British soldiers. Under what condition can we obtain the outcome described above in subgame perfect Nash equilibrium?

Answer 1

As we all know about great War of 1914-18,where there was lot of violence, bloodshed everwhere ,the two countries Britain and German entered to tuce where they will not shoot at each other.Their strategy WAS live and let live policy. They infact used to share greetings with each other, walked down at each other. On the Christmas eve they even danced together, sang carols together , shared prayers together. The equilibrium strategies were so cleared that they were adviced not to shoot if someone is relaxing,doing exercises or doing prayers. At time they used to do cease fire without harming anyone.
Now how this is related to Nash Equilibrium, the theory of Nash Equilibrium was given by Professor John Nash, His idea was that it is like a non coperative game where there are two players and each player knows his equilibrium strategies .
Comparison---
So jus like Nash Equilibrium, even Britain and German soldiers were in truce where they knew their equilibrium strategies .They knew what needs to be done together and even if one party wants to change this strategy ,they can not do so and they would not be benefited even if they change their strategies.