Devil take the hindmost: Deflecting attacks to other defenders

Abstract We study the indirect strategic interactions between several defenders and between several attackers if each attacker chooses one defender to attack and the force of the attack. If the target choice is based on observations about chosen defence efforts, this choice behavior incentivizes the individual defenders and the defenders compete against each other to not being among the weakest targets. If defence effort is unobservable, this competition between defenders is absent. We also compare the fully non-cooperative equilibria with the outcome if the defenders cooperate and study possible non-cooperative contributions to collective defence.