From armed conflicts to global pandemics, military strategists and policymakers use gaming to gain critical insights into some of the most wicked problems they face. Games help develop and test strategies, support effective decision-making, and communicate vital lessons to key stakeholders across government, industry, and academia.
The Gaming Lab at CNAS makes innovative unclassified games and exercises on a range of challenging national security issues. Experts at the Gaming Lab design and conduct these activities for leaders in government, policy, industry, and academia.
The Gaming Lab leverages extensive game design and subject matter expertise to develop highly tailored games and exercises, all of which support three primary lines of effort:
The Gaming Lab at CNAS supports the Center’s innovative research, ideas, and analysis on the most vexing problems in U.S. national security. Previous games and exercises have tackled important topics ranging from Chinese economic coercion and measures short of war to developing new operational concepts to deter and defeat great power adversaries. The Gaming Lab uses a holistic range of methods to conduct rigorous post-game analysis in support of policy-relevant reports that leverage new insights.
Equipping the next generation of gaming professionals and security analysts lies at the heart of the Gaming Lab’s mission. In addition to innovative game design and creative applications of gaming insights, the Gaming Lab at CNAS also develops tools and programs to enhance learning about gaming as a method. The Gaming Lab is deeply committed to improving diversity and inclusivity in gaming, and in defense and national security more broadly.
To learn more about using wargaming or similar methodologies to explore difficult problems, contact the Gaming Lab at [email protected]. In light of ongoing developments with the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Gaming Lab at CNAS is conducting all games and exercises virtually.
The Gaming Lab at CNAS leverages its operational gaming platform to examine critical warfighting issues in Asia, Europe, and beyond. CNAS tailors its gaming platform for each unclassified wargame to examine future conflicts and analyze areas of critical warfighting advantage and disadvantage. Examples of past operational wargames include:
The Gaming Lab at CNAS designs custom strategy games that explore critical aspects of national security, ranging across diplomatic, information, military, and economic activities. CNAS also runs political-military games that examine the strategic elements of warfare.
Examples of past strategy games include: