Simulation and Wargaming

Preface

Several parallel events did lead to the development of this compendium on wargaming and simulation.

In December 2017, the United States Marines Corps (USMC) conducted a two‐day workshop on the future of wargaming in the light of the plans to set up a new USMC Wargaming Center. The rapid change of technology accessible by opponents as well as useful to improve own forces’ and allies’ capabilities requires a better support for experts when developing new concepts or new structures to fight in such a complex environment, with the objective of enabling the best USMC planning process. This “5th generation USMC Wargaming Center” shall not break this focus, but add more capabilities to it, using the latest technologies, including but not limited to simulation, artificial intelligence, data science, and visualization. Out of question was that the human mind is and must remain the center of wargaming. Reducing wargaming to computational analysis would lead to results that are too limited, as human innovation and creativity are pivotal components of the process. Nonetheless, models, methods, and tools are needed to refine conditions, inform decisions, and clarify factors to identify issues, substantiate findings, and indicate directions. Decision tools, scenario tools, adjudication tools, and synthesis tools must support the human mind in the wargaming process. Industry and academic partners presented methods and tools pushing the limit of what has only been theoretically possible ...