XAT 2018 — Decision Making Question 8
Answer the following question based on the information given below.
Rose is the Queen of Kingdom A and Emily is the Queen of Kingdom B; both share a common border. They also share a border with Kingdom C, a much larger kingdom, ruled by King Jonathan who has expansive ambitions. Though individually their armies were no match to his might, together their armies were more powerful than King Jonathan’s army.
Jonathan’s kingdom also bordered Kingdom K on the opposite side, making Kingdom C a buffer state between Kingdoms A, B and K. Kingdom K is ruled by King Summer Sault, who united a group of warring and belligerent tribes under his aegis. Kingdom K and Kingdom C had continuous skirmishes with each other. Jonathan realized that he has limited arms and ammunition to fight on all the three fronts simultaneously. Therefore, he planned to double the arms and ammunition which will take a few years. When this news reached Emily and Rose they held a secret meeting to discuss the situation.
Jonathan aims to invade and annex Kingdom K once and for all. Which of the following options will best enable him to accomplish the ambition?
Answer & solution
- A
He should request the cooperation of Queen Rose and Queen Emily.
- B
He should sign a peace pact with Queen Rose and Queen Emily.
- C
He should try and create a rift between the two Queens.
He should secretly invest in doubling his army, by reducing all other expenditure.
- E
He should attack all three kingdoms simultaneously, giving them no time to cooperate.
Jonanthan can only do things which are under his control. Trying to get the other Queens to co-operate or sign a peace pact may not work out. Moreover, trying to create a rift between the two Queens does not help him to accomplish his ambition of annexing the Kingdom K. [5] is counter-productive as he does not have sufficient arms at his disposal. Only [4] is an appropriate course of action for Jonanthan to pursue in order to realize his dream.
Hence, the correct answer is option 4.