Unintended Consequence
Unintended consequences are outcomes that are not (or not limited to) what the actor intended in a particular situation,
Incentives
Offer money for something, and people will find ways to supply them, even if the outcome is the opposite of the intended consequence. A nice story about a snake plague goes like this: The government in India long ago tried to prevent the spreading of a snake plague, so they offered a high reward for every snake that would be catched. The result was that the people started to breed snakes in farms in order to make a lot of money.
Blowback
In CIA jargon, "blowback" describes the phenomenon of supporting a foreign regime or terrorist entity, on the principle that your enemy's enemy is your friend, only to have it attack you, often with the weapons and resources you gave it. Examples include:
- US support of Colonel Manuel Noriega
- US support of Saddam Hussein
- US support of the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, most notably Osama bin Laden, and later the Taliban
- Allied support of Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh against the Japanese in WWII.
Links
- Wikipedia entry for Unintended consequence
- Museum of unintended consequences [1]
