Higher education in Asian countries and the role of international ...

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Game theory deals with parties (, which can be individual actors, states or organizations) making
choices that influence each other's interests. It analyzes the available choices and their possible
outcomes. Game theory has contributed to the development of different models to understand
and explain the collaboration, in an anarchic world, among international actors: states and IO
including IGOs. This theory helps to simplify and to solve the problem faced by international
actors: the rational decision for an individual actor that can be a state or an IGO. According to
this game theory, sometime governments face pressures at home, and thus may not be consistent
in their interaction and cooperation with and within IOs (Gutner & Thompson, 2010). Game
theory has potential to challenge different theories of IGOs and it is demanding more in-depth
work on the organizational studies: worth of IGOs, possible new actors, consequences of
interactions, maximizing IGOs‟ importance for each actor.
3.4.5.9 Actor network theory (ANT)
Actor-network theory(ANT) was developed by French scholars, Bruno Latour and Michel
Callon. According to this theory the people, objects, organizations and resources work as actor or
actatns and each of them has a specific role, place, worth, value and weight in the social
network. According to this theory social and technical parts of any network are inseparable. A
smooth functioning of social order, at national and international level, can only be achieved
when all actors in a network are interacting and functioning properly. In the light of this theory
IGOs are also important actors of the international network and these bodies can function
effectively once all tangible and intangible actors of IGOs are present and act in harmony. ANT
provides an effective platform to critically assess and unravel problematic sets of explicit and
implicit assumptions made from the management perspective (Monteiro, 1996).