Why Wargaming Works

Wargaming has a long history as an important tool for military training, education, and research.1 In its broader application to nonmilitary conflict situations see, for example, the recent books Wargaming for Leaders and Business War Games, the technique is increasing in popularity, particularly among businesses seeking strategic advantages. As a result, we will sometimes use the terms wargaming and gaming interchangeably in the latter case, however, we mean what is called serious gaming, not the more general sense, like gambling. Despite that history and popularity, however, wargaming s record of success is uneven. Some games seemto succeed very well in preparing important decision makers for real-world environments in which they later find themselves. A prime example is the U.S.Navy s series of games during the 1920s and 1930s, which helped train the commanders who won the Second World War in the Pacific. Other games do not do so well for example, the game played by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in July 2004 did not seem to help that agency respond effectively to Hurricane Katrina s landfall only two years later. The reasons for the successes and failures of wargames of all types are as varied as the games themselves. Sometimes success stems from particular circumstances of subject matter and participants sometimes failure flows from poor design or faulty facts. When it works, wargaming can appear almost magical in its power to inform and instruct when it doesn t work, it can appear almost childish in its oversimplifications and abstractions.