全球智库信息集成服务系统

The IE is receiving greater attention than ever from operational planners, but it has not universally found its way into wargaming

• Information is playing an increasingly important role in military planning in the U.S. Marine Corps, across the U.S. Department of Defense, and among potential near-peer adversaries. These operational considerations include how certain types of information, misinformation, or sources of influence affect the decisions, beliefs, and behaviors of forces, military leaders, and noncombatants during a conflict or military campaign.
• Concurrently, wargaming has seen an increase in popularity as a method to explore future conflicts in a low-risk environment. However, these games have mostly retained traditional attrition-based models or focus on a small subset of information-related challenges, such as situational awareness or the fog of war.

Current approaches to wargaming may fail to prepare military planners and forces for the full set of operational realities

• The information requirements for a particular game may vary, depending on its objectives and focus. However, Marine Corps stakeholders agreed that there was a need for greater depth in IE scenarios, a need for more feedback from and about the IE, and a need to include the cognitive aspects of the IE in wargames.
• A design framework that weighs the relevance of the three spheres of conflict (physical, morale, and mental) and six categories of information alongside a game's objectives offers a starting point to better incorporating the IE and operations in the IE into game structure and play.

The U.S. Marine Corps and joint concepts and thinking increasingly emphasize the role of information in military operations—from maintaining situational awareness to influencing adversary decisionmaking and understanding the behaviors of noncombatant populations. At the same time, wargaming is enjoying renewed prominence in the defense community as a tool to explore potential future conflicts and shape strategy. Yet, the information environment (IE) remains underdeveloped and underrepresented in wargames, both in the Marine Corps and across the U.S. Department of Defense.

An examination of requirements, principles from military theory, current doctrine, and commercial gaming practices points to solutions and changes to game mechanics to better incorporate information considerations into wargame planning, development, and play in ways that can be customized according to available resources, capabilities, and goals. Recommendations target wargame sponsors, wargame designers, and those who are responsible for procuring new tools and recruiting personnel to support wargaming.

Operations in the IE play a role across the spectrum of conflict, and their effects and consequences extend beyond the IE. As the nature of conflict changes, it is critical that wargames reflect realities on the ground, supporting forces in using and defending against increasingly important information-based tools of warfare.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Operations in the Information Environment and Wargaming

• Chapter Three

  Requirements for Wargaming Operations in the Information Environment

• Chapter Four

  Assumptions About the Nature of Conflict

• Chapter Five

  Defeat Mechanisms

• Chapter Six

  Breakpoint and Surprise

• Chapter Seven

  Additional Solutions to Address Gaps in Wargaming Operations in the Information Environment

• Chapter Eight

  Conclusions and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Wargaming Glossary

• Appendix B

  Defense Terminology Related to Information

• Appendix C

  Changes in the Marine Corps Related to Operations in the Information Environment

• Appendix D

  Wargaming Tools Reviewed