The Promise and Peril of Wargaming

Wargaming can be a powerful tool for educating soldiers, developing military doctrine, and determining future investment strategies. However, wargaming also has real limitations: if misapplied, wargaming can reinforce bad assumptions and be used to justify unrealistic or faulty battle plans, argues Taylor Grossman in this CSS Analysis.

by Rena Uphoff
visualization
Participants look at the visualization during the NATO-organized Locked Shields cyber defense exercise in Tallinn in April 2019. Ints Kalnins / Reuters

Developed during the Gupta Empire in the sixth century BCE, the abstracted strategy game Chaturanga is often cited as the earliest iteration of a wargame. Other examples have been traced back to ancient Greece (Pessoi), Egypt (Senet and T’au), and China (Wei-chi). Modern wargaming has its roots in the early 19th century, where it emerged out of the Enlightenment-era belief that any human endeavor – including the chaos of battle – could be analyzed through the scientific method. Yet over time, wargaming has come to embrace other elements, including chance, that emphasize the less rational facets of conflict.

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