This book is about games in an indirect sense. The only category of games the author spends a serious amount of time discussing directly are war games, which evolved from chess into simulations of actual combat informing real-world decisions.

From there it goes into game theory, the mathematical discipline that engendered, and how that informed global nuclear brinksmanship.

That's just an example of the sort of game-adjacent topics the author touches on. This book covers a lot of ground and gives the reader a lot to think about.

I really enjoyed the book, and while it wasn't quite what the title led me to expect, I'm very glad I read it.