Playing to Keep Playing: A Review of Mamun's "Rethinking International Relations: Finite and Infinite Game Dynamics, Fluid Organisations, and the Paradigm Shift in Modern Diplomacy (Vol-II)

This review examines Dr. Syed Muntasir Mamun’s paper “Rethinking International Relations: Finite and Infinite Game Dynamics, Fluid Organisations, and the Paradigm Shift in Modern Diplomacy (Vol-II)” (2026). Drawing on James P. Carse’s distinction between finite games, played to win, and infinite games, played to continue the play, the paper argues that world politics now operates in both modes at once. It contends that traditional bilateral and multilateral “club diplomacy” is structurally bounded, and that transnational challenges such as AI governance, disinformation and climate change call for thematic diplomacy and fluid, networked organisations. It illustrates this with the UN Global Digital Compact, the new UN scientific panel and global dialogue on AI, and the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage, and closes with recommendations for middle powers and the Global South. This review identifies three strengths: an illuminating conceptual bridge between Carse’s framework and diplomatic practice; clear typologies that make the argument easy to apply; and well-chosen contemporary cases. It then raises four points for further discussion: the relationship with formal game theory; the referencing; the trade-offs of fluid organisations; and a few presentation matters. It closes with broader implications for foreign-policy institutions.