Forging Wargamers
A Framework for Professional Military Education
Edited by Sebastian J. Bae
DOI: 10.56686/9798985340327
ABOUT THE BOOK
How do we establish or improve wargaming education, including sponsors, participants, and future designers? The question stems from the uncomfortable truth that the wargaming discipline has no foundational pipeline, no established pathway from novice to master. Consequently, the wargaming community stands at a dangerous precipice at the convergence of a stagnant labor force and a patchwork system of passing institutional wargaming knowledge. Unsurprisingly, this can lead to ill-informed sponsors, poorly scoped wargames, an unreliable standard of wargaming expertise, and worst of all, risks the decline of wargaming as an educational and analytical tool. This fundamental challenge is a recurring theme throughout this volume and each author offers their own perspective and series of recommendations.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Sebastian J. Bae, a research analyst and game designer at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), works in wargaming, emerging technologies, the future of warfare, and strategy and doctrine for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. He also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University, where he teaches a graduate course on designing educational wargames. He teaches similar courses at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College and U.S. Naval Academy. He is also the faculty advisor to the Georgetown University Wargaming Society, the cochair of the Military Operations Research Society’s (MORS) Wargaming Community of Practice, a fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare, and serves on the executive committee for the Educational Wargaming Cooperative. Previously, he served six years in the Marine Corps infantry, leaving as a sergeant. He deployed to Iraq in 2009.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
by Sebastian J. Bae
Chapter One. Professional Wargaming: From Competence Model to Qualifying Certification
by Natalia Wojtowicz
Chapter Two. Immerse Early, Immerse Often: Wargaming in Precommissioning Education
by Kyleanne Hunter, PhD
Chapter Three. Simulation-Based Analysis and Training (SimBAT): Wargaming in the Office of Naval Intelligence
Chapter Three Addendum: SimBAT Introductory Course: Syllabus and Materials
by Timothy J. Smith
Chapter Four. Building Wargame Designers and On-the-Job-Training
by Major Paul M. Kearney
Chapter Five. Wargaming in PME: Introducing Wargaming to the Australian Defence College
by Lieutenant Colonel Scott Jenkinson and Group Captain Jo Brick
Chapter Six. Make It Stick: Institutionalizing Wargaming at EDCOM
by Major Ian T. Brown and Captain Benjamin M. Herbold
Chapter Seven. Wargaming: Sponsor Education
by Jeff Appleget, PhD; and Robert Burks, PhD
Chapter Eight. Wargaming for Social Science
by Brandon Valeriano, PhD; and Benjamin Jensen, PhD
Chapter Nine. Whole-of-Government Collaboration: Educational Nuclear Wargaming and Policy Makers
by Brooke Taylor, DSL
Conclusion: The Die Is Cast
by Sebastian J. Bae
Select Bibliography