As explained by Axelrod in his seminal work An Evolutionary Approach to Norms, punishment is a key mechanism to achieve the necessary social control and to impose social norms in a self-regulated society. In this paper, we distinguish between two enforcing mechanisms. i.e. punishment and sanction, focusing on the specific ways in which they favor the emergence and maintenance of cooperation. Th...

We propose a social coherence-based model and simulation framework to study the dynamics of multi-agent organizations. This model rests on the notion of social commitment to represent all the agents’ explicit inter-dependencies including roles and organizational structures. A local coherentist approach is used that, along with a sanction policy, ensures social control in the system and the emer...

The United States has long leveraged economic sanctions as powerful instruments to achieve foreign policy objectives [1]. Economic sanctions have been described as a “cheaper form of coercion, less aggressive than war with fewer human costs, and more politically feasible” [1]. Sanctions may be implemented as tariffs on imported goods, quotas on how much can be imported or exported, embargoes th...

As explained by Axelrod in his seminal work An Evolutionary Approach to Norms, punishment is a key mechanism to achieve the necessary social control and to impose social norms in a self-regulated society. In this paper, we distinguish between two enforcing mechanisms. i.e. punishment and sanction, focusing on the specific ways in which they favor the emergence and maintenance of cooperation. Th...

The United States and Iran as former allies turned into adversaries after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Since then the United States has tried to contain Iran as a state considered to be a threat to the U.S. national security. The U.S. Congress has also acted in line with the administrations’ policies and in some cases directed the administration to take a tougher stance toward Iran. A review...