Welcome to the Risk Calculus, a podcast from the UC Berkeley Risk and Security Lab [https://brsl.berkeley.edu/], where we explore pressing questions at the intersection of technology and national security. In our first five-part mini-series, Professor Andrew Reddie takes a deep dive into an old way of thinking about risks that is being applied in new ways both here at the lab and beyond—wargaming. The renaissance of wargaming in academic and policy circles, along with a growing public interest in this approach to risk analysis, make it an ideal time to examine the method's past, present, and future. What is a wargame? Who designs and plays these games? And how should we interpret what they tell us? To unpack these questions, Andrew is joined by guests working at the cutting edge of research and practice.
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Welcome to the Risk Calculus, a podcast from the UC Berkeley Risk and Security Lab [https://brsl.berkeley.edu/], where we explore pressing questions at the intersection of technology and national security. In our first five-part mini-series, Professor Andrew Reddie takes a deep dive into an old way of thinking about risks that is being applied in new ways both here at the lab and beyond—wargaming. The renaissance of wargaming in academic and policy circles, along with a growing public interest in this approach to risk analysis, make it an ideal time to examine the method's past, present, and future. What is a wargame? Who designs and plays these games? And how should we interpret what they tell us? To unpack these questions, Andrew is joined by guests working at the cutting edge of research and practice.
Dr. Bethany Goldblum, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California Berkeley and a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory joins Andrew for an introduction to the art and science of wargaming [https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/integrating-art-and-science-wargaming]. In this episode you'll hear about what wargames are, how they're used, and how variations of an old method can help us think through some of today's most urgent questions.
Key Points
* Historically, militaries and governments have used wargames as tools to ask and answer strategic questions, but they are now increasingly used outside of a military context. This means that wargaming is being opened up to different problem sets and a more diverse range of players and designers.
* In recent years, there has been a rise in analytical wargaming, with scholars conducting wargames as experiments to test hypotheses. Wargames are a valuable analytical tool because they offer insights into human decision making, providing a useful counterbalance to formal approaches in the social sciences.
* Wargaming is proving particularly useful for understanding the current strategic environment, as it provides insights into new capabilities and technologies whose effects may not yet be apparent in the real world.
Bethany's Reading Recommendations:
* Peter Perla's The Art of Wargaming [https://www.amazon.com/Art-Wargaming-Guide-Professionals-Hobbyists/dp/0870210505]
* Sebastian Bae's X account [https://twitter.com/SebastianBae?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor]
* Dr. Jacquelyn Schneider [https://www.hoover.org/profiles/jacquelyn-schneider] and Dr. Reid Pauly [https://www.reidpauly.com/]'s work
A reading list to accompany this podcast series can be found at: https://brsl.berkeley.edu/podcasts/
The Risk Calculus
Welcome to the Risk Calculus, a podcast from the UC Berkeley Risk and Security Lab [https://brsl.berkeley.edu/], where we explore pressing questions at the intersection of technology and national security. In our first five-part mini-series, Professor Andrew Reddie takes a deep dive into an old way of thinking about risks that is being applied in new ways both here at the lab and beyond—wargaming. The renaissance of wargaming in academic and policy circles, along with a growing public interest in this approach to risk analysis, make it an ideal time to examine the method's past, present, and future. What is a wargame? Who designs and plays these games? And how should we interpret what they tell us? To unpack these questions, Andrew is joined by guests working at the cutting edge of research and practice.
