Want to Learn How the Pentagon Works? Then Play This Board Game
Want to Learn How the Pentagon Works? Then Play This Board Game
Want to Learn How the Pentagon Works? Then Play This Board Game
By Micheal Peck
September 25, 2020
Summary
If you are someone who'd like to learn how to create a defense policy that balances strategic goals, military means, and a tight defense budget, there's a board game for that.
The ink drawing of the Pentagon-surrounded by little tanks and planes-on the game box is the first clue that Hedgemony: A Game of Strategic Choices is no ordinary tabletop game.
"Rand has been making games since the 1950s," said Michael Spirtas, a Rand scientist and one of Hedgemony's designers.
Instead, the U.S. Defense Department used it to help write the 2018 National Defense Strategy.
The designers at Rand had a bright idea: Why not repackage it as a teaching tool for aspiring defense professionals at graduate schools of public policy and the military staff colleges? "There are very few places where people who are interested in defense policy can see the Department of Defense writ large," Spirtas said.
Hedgemony is a strange beast and not just because its title is spelled with a "d." It's part family game like Risk, part paper wargame of the type favored by military history buffs, and tinged with a bit of Dungeons & Dragons-ish role-playing.
The game focuses on Blue, with Red there just to make the game educational and challenging.
Hedgemony may be the only nonclassified board game that divides the world not by political or geographic boundaries but rather by the U.S. military's regionally based combatant commands, such as Indo-Pacific Command, European Command, and Central Command.
To give the flavor of the game, consider a single turn in a demo game that Rand conducted.
The Blue team must formulate a defense policy at the outset: In this game, Blue announced that it would focus on maintaining the United States' technological edge and on creating a small rapid reaction force to deal with global crises, even if doing so came at the expense of existing forces.
Reference
Peck, M. (2020, September 25). Want to Learn How the Pentagon Works? Then Play This Board Game. Retrieved September 27, 2020, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/25/want-to-learn-how-the-pentagon-works-then-play-this-board-game/