Dr. John Emery, a professor of International Security at the University of Oklahoma and one of the world's leading experts on the historical applications of wargaming, joins Andrew for a deep dive into the past. Where does wargaming come from? How has it been used for education, training, and analysis? What are some of the most significant games in history? And what can we learn from past attempts to imagine the future of war? John also regales listeners with anecdotes from the RAND Corporation’s wargaming archives.

Key Points

While early wargames like go, chaturanga, and chess have been around for centuries, contemporary wargaming has its roots in 19th century Prussia, where General Staff Officer Karl Von Müffling encouraged their use throughout the Prussian Army.
In the U.S., wargaming took off when Alfred Mahan, inspired by the Prussian military’s use of wargaming, brought it to the Naval War College. The NWC embraced wargaming to train soldiers, study adversaries, and prepare war plans before, during, in between, and after the world wars.
Wargaming became even more popular during the Cold War, as it offered insight into the immense uncertainty of the new atomic age, with outstanding questions on nuclear deterrence, a lack of data on nuclear use, and complex alliance dynamics.
Of course, the history of wargaming is not one of only hits. The field has seen some significant misses, where games go wrong and leave their players with misleading, or completely wrong, conclusions.

John’s Reading Recommendations

Andrew Wilson's The Bomb and the Computer: The History of Professional Wargaming 1780- 1968 (edited by John Curry)
Peter Perla’s The Art of Wargaming
Becca Wasser and Stacy Pettyjohn’s work at the Center for a New American Security

A reading list to accompany this podcast series can be found at: https://brsl.berkeley.edu/podcasts/