Audacious Wargaming leverages an Alliance-wide capability to enable NATO’s competitive edge today and into the future through creation, discovery, and exploitation of opportunities in a fail-safe environment, and establishment of analytical rigor informing all levels of decision-making.
Audacious Wargaming includes state-of-the-art wargaming practices and enables collaborative capabilities with industry partners to ensure the Alliance can defend against any adversary – now and in the future.
As part of that effort, the Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2022 took place in Paris, France, October 18-19. The Wargaming Initiative sought to kick-start the creation of an open community of wargaming as another indispensable component of Alliance wargaming capability. The event brought together 214 diverse participants from 20 NATO and partner nations to share innovative ideas, hone skills and address wargaming within the Alliance. Event attendees included over a dozen generals who participated in 13 dynamic wargame scenarios.
The Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2022 was initially conceived by French and Italian defence innovation entities and assisted in development by Allied Transformation Command’s Innovation Hub in Norfolk, Virginia. Supreme Allied Commander Transformation General Philippe Lavigne gave a keynote speech during the event addressing the importance of implementing wargaming culture across the Alliance.
"The Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2022 aims at kick-starting the creation of an open community of military wargamers,” said General Lavigne. “Implementing a wargaming culture in NATO requires the support of many people, at all levels and throughout the military.”
Attendees of the Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2022 participated in tabletop and computer wargames while meeting top experts and exploring wargaming design. The conference also included demonstrations of the latest wargames, speaking events, panel presentations, breakout sessions, and discussion about every facet of NATO wargaming. Through the Wargaming Initiative, NATO personnel were exposed to wargaming applications including concept development, ideation, training, education, and course of action analysis.
Many Wargaming Initiative participants attended from military academies or represented wargaming initiatives from across the Alliance. This is the first time that an open innovation, bottom-up approach has been used to foster a wargaming community. The event also furthered the Alliance’s efforts to foster a culture of wargaming and innovation by encouraging participants to bring lessons learned back to their home nations.
The efforts of the Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2022 will continue throughout the year and will culminate next year during the Wargaming Initiative for NATO 2023, hosted by Italy; these two events will serve as the kick-off to annual Wargaming Initiatives for the years to come.
