CORDA presents at War Gaming and Combat Modelling course

CORDA provided both an interactive symposium on 'Political Cards' and a presentation on 'The Application of War Gaming and Combat Modelling in Support of Defence Decision Making' at the War Gaming and Combat Modelling course, held from 3rd to 7th November and run by the Defence College of Management and Technology at Shrivenham.

The War Gaming and Combat Modelling course is one of many short courses that the Defence College of Management and Technology at Shrivenham run.  It is a five day annual course, and a stand-alone module of both the Defence Simulation and Modelling MSc and the Military Operations Research MSc.  The aim of the course is to "provide students with a general knowledge of the techniques used in war-gaming, combat simulations and analytic battle models."  CORDA described and demonstrated war-gaming and combat modelling techniques which have been used in past projects, and adding a bit or reality to the theory.

The political cards symposium looked at the way in which the behaviours of people can be forecast and negotiations rehearsed using structured role play.  This was illustrated by looking at a long running international conflict and participants took on the roles of the different countries involved.  The cards helped structure the role play so the participants behaved plausibly and concentrated on the important decisions.  As well as being able to represent an international conflict, this technique has been successfully used to rehearse business negotiations.