I strongly The Strategy of  Conflict that won Schelling his Nobel Prize; he managed to anticipate many of the ideas in game theory in the 1980’s about two decades earlier. Here are some of my favorite snippets from his classic book when I read it several years ago:

• “strategy . . . is not concerned with the application of force but with the exploitation of potential force.”

• “Deterrence: influencing the choices another party will make by influencing his expectations of how we will behave.”

• “. . . most conflict situations are essentially bargaining situations.”

• “. . . madmen, like small children, can often not be controlled by threats.”