Friday, September 29, 2017
Wargaming: Training, Educational Tool for the Future
Colonel Thomas M. Lafleur examines the use of wargaming as a strategic tool. One of the first questions he posed was the ability to transfer results of a war game conducted in earlier years to a later time period. Later in the study, he found elements of maneuvers in war games can be transferred to any strategy in later periods, but if the gaps between time periods is large enough, the maneuvers themselves cannot be due to changes in circumstances.
To ensure a complete transference of a war game to strategy, Colonel Lafleur presents three things to be done: a nuanced scenario must be in place. The nuances mentioned are a realistic scenario with leaders who know the scenario extremely well. Second, the participants in the war game must have specific and detailed knowledge of how to proceed in the war game as well as skill sets relating to the war game. Third, examine the qualities developed out of the scenario as possible solutions for future problems.
Critique:
Colonel Lafleur does a good job examining the ability to transfer strategies developed in war games to actual military strategies. He goes into detail on what is needed for an effective war game.
Citation: Lafleur, Thomas M. http://www.arcic.army.mil/App_Documents/UQ/Wargaming.pdf.
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I agree with you Heidi. Maneuvers from war games can be transferred to any strategy later on, as long as the people involved have experience with it.Colonel Lafleur's statement that all three scenarios must be present seems reasonable.
ReplyDeleteWargaming as a strategic tool is probably one of the most appropriate ways to describe it. This process makes it possible to not only plan ahead, but be able to come back to the "drawing board" to evaluate where things went right or wrong. The ability to transfer the results to a later period is helpful since you don't always have to reinvent the wheel, which will save time in the process.
ReplyDeleteWhile this concept of transference is useful. It would be interesting to see how long the transference period would last as in would civil war gaming would related to cyberthreat analysis.
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