BU students play ‘real world’ wargames

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2023 (718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A retired Canadian Army Reserves captain is using his background teaching Ukrainian soldiers war strategies to improve his political science students’ learning experience.

Chris Hunt, who teaches the Strategies of Major Powers class at Brandon University, is putting his small class of four students through a strategy game called wargames. Wargames is a game in which his students take command of opposing armed forces in a hypothetical simulation of a military operation. Hunt has added his own special spin to the game. The BU sessional instructor was part of an international team during his military career in 2017 who taught Ukrainian military NATO-style planning, using wargames.

“Games in general allow you to play a certain role and then really feel and think through what the world looks like from that role,” Hunt said. “In this class strategy, major powers, we’ve been learning about strategic studies, which is how countries use armed force or threaten it to get their way politically in international politics.”

Hunt said the students have been given the “tools” of world leaders to work with and were expected to pre-plan their strategies before they went to class last Wednesday night. “Of course, as we say in the military, no plan survives contact with the enemy.”

Wargames have long been used in strategic studies in post-secondary education, as well as in military and defence organizations. Hunt said he came up with this analog wargame (they are using maps, dice, pens and paper) for his students to help them learn the real pressures world leaders face and help deepen their understanding of the material they are studying.

“Students have spent the last months learning about some strategic studies concepts like the purpose of war, the utility of force, deterrence, coercion, and nuclear strategy. They have also studied the strategies of the United States, Russia, and China. Now they will put this knowledge to the test over two classes worth of wargaming tensions between China, Taiwan, the United States, and Japan,” Hunt said.

“Each of these states will be played by a student who has received instructions as to their goals which, as you might imagine, could bring the players into conflict. Whether or not war breaks out will be up to the players.”

The students took three turns this week and then will take their final three turns in class next week. Hunt said they are considering everything when planning and making their moves, from what politicians would be thinking all the way down to what a soldier’s reaction to the decision of the politician might look like.

“By having them play this quick game, they really got the idea of things like, ‘OK, well, there’s a lot of uncertainty. How do we manage that?’ It’s a contest of wills between two sides,” Hunt explained. “They can feel it and experience it and maybe make some mistakes … maybe they made that mistake and lost because of that. Well, then that’s going to stick with them much more than just reading about it.”

Will there be a winner at the end? Hunt said he doesn’t know if anyone wins in wargames.

“I’m not sure if everyone can win and be happy. But at the end of the day, everybody wins if they learn something from it. I don’t know if there’s going to be actual armed conflicts that occur in the game. I think most parties are going to try and avoid it, but at the same time, they’ll have objectives that they’re willing to fight over, just like in real life.”

» khenderson@brandonsun.com