Mission: The German Wargaming Center aims to foster a strategic awareness among current and future civilian and military decisionmakers at both national and subnational levels through the deployment of wargaming as a training-, simulation-, and research instrument. Our novel approach includes developing emergent strategies in the face of an increasing complex threat environment that encompasses all parts of our societies. Our work supports the Democratic Resilience Center’s mission to enhance the resilience of German society and its democratic institutions.
Wargaming: Wargaming is a mostly scenario-based approach in which outcomes and events are driven by player decisions, providing a safe-to-fail environment for exploring what works and what doesn’t in a structured format. At the German Wargaming Center wargaming is applied to understand influence and how democratic societies can increase their resilience in the face of harmful and hostile influence under whole-of-society definition of security. Foreign influence on democratic societies forms the basis of coercive campaigns (both military and non-military), impacting attitudes and behaviors of various audiences. It is a significant aspect of e.g. NATO Defense Doctrine, emphasizing the need for understanding and conducting influence and behavioral effects. The German Wargaming Center seeks to research and convey how wargaming can be used to explore influence effects, model how those might impact democratic societies and sketch a path to increase democratic resilience through emergent strategies developed in the games.
Consultation and Training: The German Wargaming Center provides general guidance and training to public institutions and private enterprises, highlights points for consideration, illustrates and presents unresolved challenges for decision-makers in complex environments. Consultancy and training are offered for defense and security personnel, government partners, private sector stakeholders, problem owners, as well as practitioners.
Research and Strategic Wargaming: Wargaming is applied as a training tool and as a research instrument to analyze resilience for democratic societies, as well as conflict and cooperation and geoeconomic dynamics in international relations. The German Wargaming Center´s work combines insights from Psychology, Behavioral Sciences, Strategic Studies, and Political Sciences. At the German Wargaming Center wargaming as a research instrument and tool of strategic foresight is continuously developed and improved upon, using innovative approaches and international best practices.
The German Wargaming Center differs from conventional, tactical wargaming in its focus on the strategic level, in particular, the nexus of civil-military interaction. Challenges in strategic wargaming include dealing with complex multi-stakeholder relationships, diverse teams, fluctuating competition levels, and the lack of clear winners. Decision-makers in democratic societies must consider new leadership styles that that can balance defensive and offensive skillsets, manage key risks, and understand the unique requirements of democratic societies in an indeterminate environment shaped by hostile, neutral and even friendly actors, all of whom aim to exercise influence.
At the German Wargaming Center challenges such as scenario complexity, biases, modelling influence effects, and balancing simplicity with playability are addressed. The German Wargaming Center leverages digital tools and AI wherever applicable to enhance and refine its approach. Effective control and thorough data capture and analysis are essential for fact-based and credible results and are thus rigorously practiced at the German Wargaming Center.
A Wargaming Hub: The German Wargaming Center globally connects researchers and decision-makers through trainings, academic conferences and thematic workshops. It functions as a knowledge hub to coordinate and enhance the work of e.g. research task-groups and -panels in the framework of the NATO Science and Technology Organization. The German Wargaming Center provides case studies illustrating practical applications of wargaming in various scenarios, including strategic communications, hybrid and cyber influence, and educational games. These examples highlight innovative approaches and the importance of tailored game designs.
Letzte Änderung: 19. Juni 2024