Wargaming and Strategy

Wargaming is undergoing a renaissance. Not since the interwar period (1919-1939) has the method been so popular with not only governments, militaries, and NGOs, but also with a host of public and private institutions. This may not be surprising. The modern world is presenting us with a host of novel challenges including pandemics, climate crises, the rise of great power conflict, supply chain vulnerabilities, cyber security threats, and radical politics. Many of these challenges are new and poorly understood. Others are interacting in new and complex ways. Wargaming offers a potential way to help discover and evaluate strategies for dealing with them. But how?

The purpose of this course is to consider how wargaming might be used to analyse and develop strategy. As such, it is a course about two different but linked issues. First, we must consider what strategy is, how it flows from one’s understanding of victory, and how it is influenced by the choices of others. Second, in applying wargaming to strategy, we must first unpack wargaming as method by understanding its history, its unique features, and how it can be best applied to questions of strategic analysis. Over the course of five units, students will receive introductions into strategic theory and the method of wargaming. By the end of the course students should be well positioned to be able to evaluate if, when, and how wargaming might address some of the challenges organizations and individuals face today.

This is a self-paced online course where students can access and work through the material at their own convenience. You will have access to the course for 3 months.

The course is designed to give students an understanding of the potential of wargaming as a tool of strategic analysis by:

• Introducing them to the history of wargaming
• Introducing them to theories of strategic choice
• Outlining the unique features of wargaming
• Detailing how wargaming is used professionally
• Providing guidance on how to use wargaming in research

Through this course, students will:

• Be able to identify core concepts of theories of strategic choice
• Be able to identify the unique methodological features of wargaming
• Be able to locate wargaming both as an object and method of study, with specific emphasis on how it can contribute to strategic analysis
• Gain an overview of the history and practice of professional wargaming
• Learn how to incorporate wargaming as an analytic tool into their organisations

No formal education or professional requirements, however, all learning will be delivered in English, therefore we recommend minimum IELTS Level 6 for learners to get the most from the spoken and written content.