Thomas Schelling quotes

Thomas Schelling was an influential American economist and Nobel laureate, known for his pioneering work in game theory and strategic behavior. His research shaped important concepts in conflict resolution, nuclear strategy, and social dynamics. He made significant contributions to the understanding of how individual choices can lead to collective outcomes. Here are 8 of his quotes:

The most spectacular event of the past half century is one that did not occur. We have enjoyed sixty years without nuclear weapons exploded in anger. (Thomas Schelling)
The next possessors of nuclear weapons may be Iran, North Korea, or possibly some terrorist bodies. Is there any hope that they will have absorbed the nearly universal inhibition against the use of nuclear weapons, or will at least be inhibited by the recognition that the taboo enjoys widespread acclaim? View quote
Thomas Schelling
What this book is about is a kind of analysis that is characteristic of a large part of the social sciences, especially the more theoretical part. That kind of analysis explores the relation between the behavior of individuals who compromise some social aggregate, and the characteristics of the aggregate.These situations, in which people's behavior or people's choices depend on the behavior or choices of other people, are the ones that usually don't permit any simple summation or extrapolation of the aggregates. To make that connection we usually have to look at the system of interaction between individuals and their environment, that is, between individuals and other individuals or between individuals and the collectivity. View quote
Thomas Schelling
Arms control is so often identified with limitations on the possession or deployment of weapons that it is often overlooked that this reciprocated investment in non-nuclear capability was a remarkable instance of unacknowledged but reciprocated arms control. View quote
Thomas Schelling
The essence of these tactics is some voluntary but irreversible sacrifice of freedom of choice. They rest on the paradox that the power to constrain an adversary may depend on the power to bind oneself; that, in bargaining, weakness is often strength, freedom may be freedom to capitulate, and to burn bridges behind one may suffice to undo an opponent. View quote
Thomas Schelling
There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable. View quote
Thomas Schelling
I use game theory to help myself understand conflict situations and opportunities. View quote
Thomas Schelling
When I used to theorize about a nuclear standoff, I didn't really have to understand what was happening inside the Soviet Union. It is a lot harder now to build a theory that can encompass all the complications of today's conflicts. View quote
Thomas Schelling