WELCOME TO ALLIED COMMAND TRANSFORMATION

NATO's Strategic Warfare Development Command

NATO’s Wargaming Initiative 2023 Concludes, with Expert Participation from Academia, Industry, and Additional Stakeholders throughout the Alliance

June 28, 2023

ROME, Italy – Allied Command Transformation concluded the Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2023, which ran from June 26th through June 28th, 2023. The Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2023 was a collaborative conference that provided participants the opportunity to explore wargaming simulations, applications, and utilization.

From June 26th through Jun 28th, experts from throughout the Alliance gathered for a series of collaborative discussions and exercises on wargaming. Academia, Industry, and additional stakeholders came together to better understand the importance of wargaming, which plays a crucial role in military planning and decision-making. Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2023 enhanced relationships between military wargamers, supporting the development of awareness and understanding throughout NATO’s wargaming community. Wargaming improves operational readiness through risk reduction, simulated evaluations of real-world challenges, and knowledge sharing between diverse stakeholders.

The theme for Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2023 was “Understanding Better and Deciding Faster, Harnessing the Power and Potential of Wargaming,” highlighting the importance of wargaming as part of warfare development and military decision making. Allied Command Transformation co-led the Wargaming Initiative, where participants were able to explore threats and challenges in a safe-to-fail environment. As NATO’s Warfare Development Command, Allied Command Transformation is responsible for understanding, addressing, and transforming the needs of NATO’s Military Instrument of Power.

General Chris Badia, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, delivered keynote remarks during the event, where he emphasized the importance of an increased culture of wargaming for decision makers. Additional discussions included academic and theoretical doctrines and plans, as well as the need for concepts like Multi-Domain Operations to be evaluated in a wargame setting before implementation. More than 300 attendees from across the Alliance joined in the wargaming sessions, themed around challenges and opportunities, innovation challenges, political-military decision making, and user experiences.