"CONTENTS: Professors Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff begin the book with explanation of sequential-move games governed by the principle `look ahead and reason back'. Then simultaneous-move games are introduced by means of prisoners' dilemma, the situation when by playing their dominant strategies (thus theoretically maximizing their payoff) both sides get the outcome that is jointly worse than if they followed the strategies of minimizing their payoff. The paradox lies in interdependency of sides' outcomes. To resolve the problem the competitors have to cooperate i.e. follow their less desired strategies. Temptation to brake rules unilaterally is very strong, to make it worse you cannot control your opponent's move in the game. The rule `look ahead and reason back' does not work either. But one can manage this.
To tackle the problem strategists transform simultaneous-move games into sequential-move games. That is where the notion of strategic move comes into play. Strategic move is an action designed to alter beliefs and actions of others in a direction favorable to yourself. Strategic move will purposely limit your freedom but in return it will limit your opponent's freedom. Threats and promises are examples of strategic moves that are widely used. Another example of strategic move explained in the book, brinkmanship, consists in creating and maintaining risk of mutually bad outcome. Unlike the compelling threat, brinkmanship does not secure bad outcome, it does not even tell when it may occur. It is left to your opponent to guess at any point in the game if you are on the brink of disaster. By defying yourself an opportunity to influence the situation and making your opponent understand that he is the only capable to resolve the conflict you induce him to compromise.
Then it comes to multi-person games where interdependence is so complex that the outcome seems absolutely unpredictable. Voting is an example of an imperfect system that cannot aggregate up individuals' preferences into a will of the people. The authors show how result of voting depends on the scheme of voting that gives way for manipulation.
When discussing bargaining the authors explore how different schemes of bargaining change sides' power and affect the result. Time is money for both sides but it is likely that they discount future at different rates thus one side gets competitive edge. Simultaneous bargaining can open up possibility for mutually beneficial trade-off, especially when sides value items differently.
OVERALL: The book is well structured and written in an easy-to-understand language, though in some cases it shows contradictions and some explanations seem oversimplified. It is rich in examples and offers cases from different spheres of life. This book instills mathematical approach to problems without going deep into mathematics. So the book will not put off `mathematically disadvantaged' readers. Even in case this book is the only you read on strategy, you will acquire knowledge that is indispensable nowadays. The book changed my perception of conflicts, games and bargaining.
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