Assises Françaises d’Etude du Wargaming — a report

The following report was written for PAXsims by Thibault Fouillet and Malo Cornuaille.

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Wargames continue to grow in popularity, and after disappearing from the strategic debate in France for over forty years, they are now part of the buzzwords. However, their professional practice remains scattered throughout France, and publications on the subject are rare, especially when compared to the mass of Anglo-Saxon productions. The Assises Françaises d’Etude du Wargaming was the first step in addressing these issues.  

« What are we talking about? »   

Interest of conducting a Wargaming Conference 

When we look at the research events dedicated to wargaming across the Atlantic, we are struck by both their number and their regularity. Making wargames thus amounts not only to creating games but also to thinking about their use in the service of professional objectives (training, prospective studies, planning assistance, concept tests, etc.), and therefore implies research dedicated to their development and to the understanding of this methodological object. 

The Assises Françaises d’Etude du Wargaming was built for a similar purpose. The aim is to be able to treat wargaming in France as a discipline, i.e. an object of research with its concepts, methods, debates, and theoretical frameworks, but also its practices and their analysis. A point of view unanimously recognized but which did not have a framework of expression in France, and above all a point of convergence between the various professionals (theorists and practitioners), civilian and military. 

The ambition of this event was to offer a meeting point for the major actors in France in the field of wargaming, but also and above all to be able to deal in depth with this object, which explains the format of the Assises and not only of a thematic conference. 

A major event with an international dimension 

To do this, it was necessary to be able to bring together the main players in professional wargaming in France, but also to be able to conduct reference debates on all the structuring themes. The event, built over two days, wanted to meet these objectives through an ambitious program presenting six thematic round tables and two keynotes concluding each day. Wargaming is also a practical methodology, and these days of theoretical debates were followed by dynamic demonstrations presenting civilian and military wargame creations. 

The debates, although focused on the French vision of wargaming, included foreign speakers, above all European, but also American, to develop a community of interest between their practices and ours. 

Report on the exchanges: methodological debates and study of employment within the French armed forces.

The introductory remarks and the introduction of the round tables provided an initial definition of wargaming and wargaming, and the inclusion of the latter in the framework of academic research and the field of strategic studies. If war is not a game, understanding it through the game and in particular its methodological use is an undeniable asset for understanding its determinants, adapting training processes or enriching the practical methodologies of prospective studies. 

Day One: Wargaming as a Methodology

In addition to the introductory remarks, the round tables of the first day focused on the object and study of its transdisciplinary theoretical framework. 

The first reflections focused on the history and methodology of wargaming, insisting on the difference between the medium (the wargame) and its methodological use (wargaming), the latter being in essence what makes wargames a professional job and not a simple hobby. The interests and limits were also mentioned, recalling the formidable tool of training and understanding that wargaming is, while insisting on design biases and the danger of making it a prophetic tool when on the contrary it only aims to question. Finally, these theoretical dimensions have been applied to the case study of the military nuclear fact and the evolution of the contribution of wargaming in this regard during the Cold War and now in the “third nuclear age”.  

A second-round table dealt with strategic culture from the perspective of wargaming. The aim was to detect the influence of an actor’s strategic culture on the use of wargaming and its institutional position, through two presentations, that of Lieutenant-Colonel Augustin Lefort, trainee at the Ecole de Guerre and president of the newly established wargame committee, and Mark Joergensen, wargamer at the Royal Danish Defence College. Subsequently, an analysis was presented, this time on the question of the existence of strategic cultures within wargaming itself, with the study of its global diffusion and decentrated cases, such as its use in China. 

Subsequently, a third-round table raised the transdisciplinary nature of wargaming, through its use in management sciences or through the prism of political science. It was also an opportunity to discuss the relationship between wargaming and artificial intelligence, on the contributions of the latter in the creation, conduct, but especially the analysis of wargames. 

To conclude, the day ended with a Keynote by Captain Louis M. McGray, Vice President of the Wargaming Chair at the US Naval War College, on the use of wargaming in strategic thinking and officer training in the US Navy. A presentation that allows us to compare French and American practices on the subject. 

Day Two: typologies of wargaming and case study in the French armed forces 

For its part, the second day of this first edition of the Assises Françaises d’Etude du Wargaming focused on the practical dimensions of making and using professional wargames. 

The first-round table presented alternative approaches to wargaming, such as their non-military use in the management of uncertainty and national crises, as well as a focus on the importance of storytelling and other means of realizing scenarios (scenario method, brainstorming). The challenge is to demonstrate the plurality of the use of wargaming but also its complementarity with the other tools of prospective and practical studies. 

The second-round table returned to the historical heart of the use of professional wargames by opening the first part of the thematic case study of this edition of the conference: military wargaming. It was then a question of taking an interest in their use in the context of the production of doctrines and strategic thinking. Interventions by the three armies (land, air, sea) presented the place and role of wargames in these institutions in France. The final intervention of this round table, on the constitution of multi-domain wargames, demonstrated the complexity of this type of modeling and to identify the reality of multi-domain operations in the construction and analysis of wargames. 

Concluding this cycle of round tables, the last presented the second part of military wargaming through its use in technical-industrial studies and developments. Through reflections on innovation cycles, Colonel Sébastien de Peyret presented the challenges of wargames and their use in the context of wargames. This presentation was complemented by feedback from Naval Group’s Naval Innovation Hub on their use of wargames in technological foresight and their industrial constraints. 

At the end of this second day, and more generally of this edition of the conference, a keynote presented the French vision of wargaming as a way forward with many challenges, capable of meeting them, in particular because of a community of professionals in the process of being formed. 

Lessons learned and posterity of this first edition. 

A successful founding act.  

This first edition of the conference is undeniably a success. With more than eighty attendees, the objectives of bringing together the various French professional actors on the subject, and of holding a reference event on the study of this methodological object, have been fulfilled. 

Thus, the hoped-for convergence of wargaming actors in France and their participation in transdisciplinary studies on the theoretical frameworks, methods and practices of this object have indeed taken place. The hoped-for founding act has been achieved, and it is now a question of ensuring its sustainability. 

After the Assises: a sustainability process has begun.  

In this respect, two ways of continuation have already been instituted. 

The first, which aims to ensure the institutional sustainability of these meetings, and like the disciplines mentioned above (sociology and political science), is embodied in the creation – currently underway – of the French Association for the Study of Wargaming, led by the founders of the conferences and whose operation and content will be ensured by an extended scientific committee, made up of the major actors in wargaming in France. Designed in a multidisciplinary composition, linking civilians as well as military, academics, private and public actors, this association, and its scientific committee will be intended to prepare the next editions of the conference but also to bring the French wargaming community to life thanks to the point of convergence thus created. 

The second way of sustainability is the creation of a reference French publication on wargaming. Extending the presentations and debates of the conference, enriched with publications resulting from a call for papers, they will have to establish a frame of reference after each edition of the conference. The first step of this ambition will be concretized next September with the publication of a double issue of the journal Stratégique dedicated to this subject, offering more than twenty scientific articles on wargaming. 

In the end, a founding act was taken. The French wargaming community has converged to conduct a multidisciplinary study on its subject and produce a reference French reflection. The first step to undeniable success, it is now a question of consolidating it, through regular events but also structuring publications. Let’s bet that this challenge will be met.