Games of Strategy: Theory and Applications.

Abstract

Abstract : Games of Strategy: Theory and Applications, originally published by Prentice Hall in 1961, was written by Melvin Dresher, a RAND research mathematician, during the heyday of Game Theory at RAND. This book introduced readers to the basic concepts of game theory and its applications for military, economic, and political problems, as well as its usefulness in decision making in business, operations research, and behavioral science. More than 40 years after its first publication as a RAND research study, and to celebrate RAND's 60th Anniversary, RAND brings this classic work back into print in paperback and digital formats. The author presents in an elementary and formal manner the mathematical theory of games of strategy and some of its applications. Although many of the applications are discussed in military terms, they can easily he formulated in economic or social science terms. An attempt has been made to develop the subject matter in such a way as to make the volume adaptable as a text on the theory of games in colleges and universities. The book starts in Chapter 1 with an exposition of games of strategy, with examples taken from parlor games as well as from military games. The next two chapters treat the basic topics in the theory of finite games (i.e., the existence of optimal strategies and their properties). Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the representation of games and the computation of optimal strategies. Since many games involve an infinite number of strategies, Chapters 6, 7, and 8 deal with such games by developing the necessary mathematics (e.g., probability distribution functions and Stieltjes integrals) for handling infinite games. The results on infinite games are applied in Chapters 9 and 10 to two general classes of games -- timing games and tactical games. Finally, the last chapter provides an application of moment space theory to the solution of infinite games.

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