(In this respect it differs from an enforceable contract.)
The agreement will stand so long as the parties believe it is mutually beneficial and it is not breached by any party.
[1] In game theory, games in which cooperative behaviour can only be enforced through self-enforcing agreements are called non-cooperative games, whereas games allowing strategies relying on external enforcement are called cooperative games.
Nash equilibrium is the most common kind of self-enforcing agreement.
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