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'Wargaming in a Post-Pandemic World: Adapting Institutions to Out-Think and Out-Partner' is organised by the King's Wargaming Network, the third online lecture in the King's Wargaming Network Public Lecture series 2019-2020.

This webinar features Matthew B. Caffrey Jr., who provides wargame support to the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Material Command, Air Staff and NATO.

We now know we live in a world where a novel illness can take lives, livelihoods and liberties worldwide with rapid speed. At the same time, the character of war is evolving in novel and dangerous ways that are not fully known.

Wargaming can help decision makers better understand and address new challenges in a complex and uncertain environment, but reaping these benefits requires the right organisational structures and processes.

For almost 40 years, Matthew B. Caffrey Jr. has been building organisations to help adapt wargaming to meet evolving threats and opportunities.

During the lecture, he will address the following questions:

  • How have wargaming structures adapted in the past to respond to changes in the strategic environment?
  • What institutional adaptations are currently underway in the United States and NATO?
  • What more can and should be done to increase the utility of wargaming to address the full set of threats facing NATO allies?

Ivanka Barzashka, Director of the King's Wargaming Network, will chair the lecture.

About the speaker

Matthew B. Caffrey Jr. provides wargame support to the United State’s Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Material Command, Air Staff and to NATO.

In 1993 he helped found the Connections interdisciplinary wargaming conference. Since then Connections has grown to be held in six nations, including Connections UK, at King's College London from 2013-2019.

He authored On Wargaming, how wargames have shaped our past and can shape our futures, published by the US Naval War College Press in 2019.

A retired Colonel, US Air Force Reserve, he served with the US Air Staff’s Checkmate Division and at the major command, wing, group and squadron levels. His civilian positions include Professor of Wargaming and Campaign Planning at the US Air Force Command and Staff College and Research Assistant for Wargaming at the USAF’s School for Advanced Airpower Studies.

More about the webinar series

The event is part of the King's Wargaming Network Public Lecture Series.The 2019/20 lectures feature speakers who are building the future of wargaming to usefully address contemporary security problems facing the UK and its NATO allies.

 

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