Kahneman's Annexation Of War: An Analysis

In a discussion about war, it is inevitable to mention globalization. Globalization undoubtedly has a role to play when states go to war- the reasons why wars are waged, how wars are carried out- yet there are other reasons that attribute to why wars occur. Firstly, Daniel Kahneman’s prospect theory will be used to analyse the reasons and rationale behind Russia initiating the annexation of Crimea, George Homas’ rational choice theory and Sigmund Freud’s theory of id, ego, and superego will be used to analyse the reasons why Yanukovych had signed the treaty with Russia, James Fearon’s rationalist explanations of war and the concept of nationalism will be used to analyse the methods in which Russia had carried out the annexation, and lastly, an analysis of how Emile Durkheim’s functionalist theory and George Herbert Mead’s symbolic interactionism theory will explain how nationalism was further strengthened and how it facilitated the success of the annexation. This essay explores how modern …show more content…
If an individual has two equal choices in possible gains and losses, they would choose the former. One would display loss aversion only if the possible losses were higher than their potential gain (Sewell, Martin 2015). In the annexation of Crimea, Russia’s gain would be the reclamation of Crimea, which would expand the overall Russian territory and potentially be the gateway to rebuilding the Soviet Union. Furthermore, in the process of reclaiming Crimea, Russia would obtain parts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov as well that would widen their pool of oil and gas resources. Their possible losses, however, meant risking alienation from the rest of the world and international condemnation resulting in economic sanctions that could hurt Russia’s economy. Russia decided that the gains outweighed the losses, and chose to go ahead with the annexation of