IWP students participate in professional defense planning wargame

“Hedgemony gives players insights on the pressures DoD faces when it comes to force readiness and allocation.”  
– Bernard Barillo, Team China

On a Saturday in early September, IWP students played a global defense planning and resource strategy game designed by Rand Corporation titled Hedgemony.  Deftly led by one of the games designers, Prof. Michael Linick of the U.S. Army War College, students played on one of six teams: the United States, NATO/EU, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea (DPRK).

Team USA was the largest and had to balance budget, military force structure, force readiness, and future modernization requirements against live foes representing the “Axis of Authoritarians” and an unpredictable White Cell (run by Prof. Linick’s wife Debbie, a former State Department officer) which could generate global and domestic events that could be both helpful and obstructive.  Team USA had a willing partner in NATO/EU, but one that had limited capabilities.

Team USA was expertly advised by IWP Professor Dr. Wayne Schroeder, who teaches IWP 679, Defense Strategy, Planning and Budgeting.  “I found the wargame to be beneficial for our participating students, enabling them to use both their growing knowledge of statecraft and their critical thinking skills to better understand the difficult choices national security decision-makers face in an increasingly complex global security environment,” said Dr. Schroeder.  “I was particularly pleased that the Blue Team (including NATO/EU) chose to meet the difficult choices posed in the game without prematurely resorting to the use of kinetic military force.  As I heard former Secretary of State James Baker once say, ‘The easiest way to get into a fight is to go out looking for one.’”

The “Axis of Authoritarians” Red Team did its best to keep the United States and NATO off-balance and reactive, often by leveraging each other’s resources and employing asymmetric strategies.  Each game turn represents a year in real time, and at the end of the first turn, Team China built a base with no troops at the Panama Canal to distract the Blue Team.  In turn 2, Team Iran organized a win-win-win energy deal with Russia and the DPRK that increased the resources available to all three teams for their nefarious uses.

Professor Aaron Danis, who advised the four Red teams, had directed them to play their countries as closely as they could to their respective real-life counterparts.

“Grand strategy is very difficult when it involves responding to several bad actors at the same time, but it becomes easier when creating instability is part of the goal,” said Team Iran player Carlos Alatorre. “With all eyes on the US’ every move, all we (Iran) had to do was wait for a good opportunity once they shifted focus.”

“This was a successful first running of this professional game from Rand,” noted Professor Danis.  “We plan to run it again in the spring with more prep time, and we hopefully can find a place where we can leave it set up so we can play it over several weeks.  I would like to play 8 full turns, representing 2 terms of a Presidential administration.”