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Wargaming

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Wargames are analytic games that simulate aspects of warfare at the tactical, operational, or strategic level. They are used to examine warfighting concepts, train and educate commanders and analysts, explore scenarios, and assess how force planning and posture choices affect campaign outcomes. RAND has developed and can execute various types of wargames, including scenario exercises, tabletop map exercises, “Day After…” games, and computer-supported exercises.

Commentary
These Technologies Could Defeat China's Missile Barrage and Defend Taiwan
Earlier this year, a group of experts from RAND and the Special Competitive Studies Project launched a new wargame effort around China's invasion of Taiwan. But unlike most D.C.-based wargames, this effort heavily involved members of the commercial technology sector, to understand what near-term capabilities might be brought to bear on a Taiwan scenario.
Aug 24, 2023
Report
Managing Military Personnel Costs: Operation Retrenchment Specter, A Workforce Futures Game
To ensure a ready workforce without undercutting modernization and sustainment efforts, the U.S. Air Force must explore options to limit military personnel costs while considering the nonmonetary trade-offs and risks that these options entail.
Jun 13, 2023

Explore Wargaming

Report
Designing A Strange Game: A Nuclear Wargame for the 21st Century
This report details the theoretical motivation and design of a wargame meant to address the lack of serious games that consider nuclear weapon employment and tools available to teach stakeholders about the challenges of nuclear weapon employment.
Nov 28, 2023
Report
Revisiting RAND's Russia Wargames After the Invasion of Ukraine: Summary and Implications
This report summarizes reexamined RAND tabletop exercises involving Russia from the past eight years in a review of wargaming methods and analysis and presents implications for future potential conflicts involving major powers.
Nov 21, 2023
Report
Battle of Gettysburg: The Impact of Alternative Technologies on Civil War History
The authors of this Battlefield Futures Program report examine the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg and consider the potential outcomes that might have come to bear had the armies involved used alternative technologies.
Sep 11, 2023
Report
Assessing the Impact of Diverse Intermediate Force Capabilities and Integrating Them into Wargames for the U.S. Department of Defense and NATO
The authors of this report describe how to measure the impact of intermediate force capabilities (IFCs), which cause less-than-lethal effects, and how to better integrate them into wargaming, modeling, and simulation for U.S. and NATO-wide forces.
Jun 27, 2023
Report
Simulating Chinese Gray Zone Coercion of Taiwan: Identifying Redlines and Escalation Pathways
This paper shares the results of an exercise hosted by the RAND Corporation to explore the risk of escalation from Chinese activities in the gray zone to conventional war. The results showed an overall low risk of Taiwanese escalation.
Jun 22, 2023
Journal Article
Wargames Can't Tell Us How to Deter a Chinese Attack on Taiwan — But Different Games Might
Wargames that simulate combat between the United States and China near Taiwan can provide useful insight about potential military challenges.
May 5, 2023
Report
Network Logistics Games: Design and Implementation
This report details a logistics game design that is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of scenarios, objectives, and modifications.
Apr 19, 2023
Report
USCG Project Evergreen V: Compilation of Activities and Summary of Results
This report summarizes the findings of Evergreen V, the most recent iteration of an ongoing U.S. Coast Guard initiative aimed at identifying emerging challenges and future trends so that senior leaders can plan for the long term.
Nov 30, 2022
Research Brief
Activities and Results from U.S. Coast Guard Project Evergreen V
This brief summarizes the findings of U.S. Coast Guard Project Evergreen V, part of a long-term strategic planning effort to identify emerging challenges and future trends that might alter demand for missions and the ability to perform them.
Nov 30, 2022
Report
Adaptive Engagement for Undergoverned Spaces: Concepts, Challenges, and Prospects for New Approaches
This report is a compendium of expert insights regarding opportunities for investing in science and technology to increase U.S. ability to engage in long-term competition in undergoverned spaces.
Jul 13, 2022
Commentary
Developing a Winning Safety Strategy for Automated Vehicles
When policy problems involve many different groups with diverging interests along with significant uncertainty about the future, games can be a valuable way to explore the potential consequences of important policy decisions. What could gaming bring to the area of AV safety?
Feb 18, 2022
Journal Article
Artificial Intelligence for Wargaming and Modeling
We discuss how AI can be used in modeling, simulation, wargaming, and combinations thereof, focusing largely on the strategic political-military level.
Feb 15, 2022
Journal Article
An Analysis-Centric View of Wargaming, Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis
This paper discusses how wargaming can be used as part of an analysis campaign in a sequence of model-game-model activities, always with the intent to assist analysis.
Jan 20, 2022
Tool
The Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame: Rulebook
This document presents the full ruleset for the Information Warfighter Exercise Wargame, which is used by the Marine Corps to provide training for aspects of operations in the information environment.
Aug 24, 2021
Report
Acquiring a Mosaic Force: Issues, Options, and Trade-Offs
Mosaic Warfare envisions more fractionated, heterogeneous forces, dynamically composed on tactical timelines. In this report, the authors present insights from a policy game to assess alternative governance models for acquiring a Mosaic force.
Aug 9, 2021
Commentary
Use Wargaming to Sharpen the Tactical Edge
As a growing consensus embraces the utility of educational wargaming, a more daunting question remains: Can the Joint Force integrate and sustain educational wargaming in the operating forces? The challenges are substantial, but they are not insurmountable. The answer depends on bold leadership, sufficient tools, and eager partners.
Mar 8, 2021
Report
How to Avoid Aggression or Escalation in a Crisis
Anticipating how an opponent may be reasoning, and then seeking ways to alter that thinking can inform an effective influence strategy. Deterring adversaries by threat of punishment alone is often ineffective. A better approach might involve a mix of several measures, such as being able to thwart aggression, reassurances to reduce the adversary's fears, and relationship-building.
Feb 16, 2021
Commentary
Wargames as an Educational Tool
The benefits of games for military education are well documented. But harnessing the potential of games to foster innovation may require a commitment to sustain gaming over the years needed to explore a problem space and develop and stress-test new ideas.
Feb 8, 2021

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RAND Topic:
Wargaming

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Jonathan Cham

Policy Analyst

Jonathan Cham is a policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. His areas of interest include Indo-Pacific security, defense security cooperation, wargaming, and space. At RAND, his portfolio of work includes economic analysis of the international space launch market, space security cooperation,…
Abby Doll

RAND Liaison for U.S. Army Pacific

Abby Doll is a political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where she focuses on military capabilities assessment and military strategy. In particular, she focuses on competition, multi-domain operations, and logistics and deployment challenges for future conflict scenarios. She also develops…

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