IWP students played the RAND-designed global defense planning game Hedgemony in late January in the Marlatt Mansion. Teams were divided into Blue (the U.S. Defense Department and NATO/EU) and Red (Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea) teams. The game revolves around the U.S.’ ability to use finite national resources to maintain, upgrade, and deploy U.S. forces globally in concert with NATO, and if need be, fight Red either kinetically or in the grey zone. In this game, Red has an active say and can employ some ingenious asymmetric strategies against Blue.
“This game was designed by RAND to train U.S. force planners in the Pentagon at the strategic level,” said Professor Aaron Danis, who acted as game facilitator and Red Team Advisor. “It also incorporates helpful or disruptive domestic and international events through a “White Cell” that can impact any of the six countries’ strategies. We were fortunate that a recently retired wargaming colleague of mine from the U.S. Intelligence Community dropped by to run the White Cell and keep players on their toes.”
Since IWP students last played the game in September, North Korean troops have been introduced into Ukraine, and this was reflected in the game. Blue Team Advisor Dr. Wayne Schroeder, who teaches IWP’s course on defense planning noted this, saying, “This game showed the complexity of the security environment facing the United States. It also displayed the potential difficulty facing the U.S. from the “no limits partnership” of Russian and China, and the rogue states of Iran and North Korea.”
Graduate student Godbless Otubure agreed, stating “As a member of team NATO (Blue), playing the game and observing the [Red Team] intel briefings, I came to appreciate the importance of defense intelligence in executing and winning wars.” With each turn representing a year of real time, almost anything can happen from year to year, which requires forward planning. Jonathan Jarrett, on Team USA, mentioned the demands of resource planning. “Hedgemony excellently portrays the difficulty of using resources effectively to both maintain the readiness of a force capable of responding to threats and modernizing the force for future conflicts.”
Second year grad student Ian Everhart (one of five returning players from the fall), stated, “Playing as Russia in Hedgemony, one quickly learns that the country has limited economic resources and has to close a very large gap with the United States to win. One learns to use psychological warfare, military force, and diplomacy with other Red states to cause trouble on multiple fronts, pressure Europe, and overstretch U.S. commitments.”
Hunter Yoon, an undergraduate student from Baylor University visiting IWP, was able to jump in and play on Team China when a student dropped due to an emergency. Echoing Team Russia, he said, “It was insightful to play from the Chinese perspective. We schemed ways we could exploit America’s weaknesses, and we sought do to that by overstretching the U.S. [globally] as much possible.”
Dr. Schroeder noted that “All the students performed quite well, and I personally recommend Hedgemony to all students at IWP.” Professor Danis plans to run the game again in the fall semester.
