4 Stars

I remember a time when we used to share 1000-page dossiers with Pakistan, sharing “intel” with their leadership that there are terrorists within their country who are causing great harm to India. We used to plead with them to take actions against these non-state actors, knowing perfectly well that they were revered within that country as heroes. We used to grovel in front of the UN, the US or any country whom we believed had power to make Pakistan comply – but it was a fruitless activity.

In the real world, turning the other cheek doesn’t work, pleading makes us look weak. While never being the first to defect (or strike in this case), when provoked – we need to retaliate immediately, discriminating against bad behavior. If we see a ramp down back to cooperation from the other party, we follow suit. That’s the core crux of ‘Tit for tat’ – the winning strategy in a scenario known as ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ – applied quite effectively by our military when given a free hand from the central BJP government post 2014.

You don’t need a central authority to make the other hostile party comply. As neighbours, we must know that the future casts a long shadow on any action we take today, we know that we would have to continue interacting for a long time to come – hence a simple ‘Tit for tat’ strategy can effectively bring back the other party to comply with us. Maybe ‘Tit for two tats’ might be more effective in avoiding echoing conflicts, but when we know for a fact that the other party has a “reputation” of trying to exploit any weaknesses that we might possess – it’s always better to retaliate immediately and get them back on the path of compliance.

‘Evolution of Cooperation’ by Robert Axelrod explains this concept very well – and some of the strategies discussed when two parties are interacting with each other in a non-zero sum environment where future casts a long enough shadow – find references even in nature which we generally believe to be cutthroat and ruthless with its “survival of the fittest” dictum. Multiple computer simulations tell us to operate in good faith and cooperate, it doesn’t hurt if we are cognisant of how the other party interacts with us, and if we are able to discriminate and retaliate against them if they operate in bad faith. 

It’s a wonderful book & a must read. It is also heavily cited by some of the other books I have (partially) read over the years i.e. ‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins. I believe the world would be a much better place if more people read it and implemented its learnings.