Conceptual Design for a Multiplayer Security Force Assistance Strategy Game

Abstract

The United States routinely provides security force assistance (SFA) to strengthen foreign partners in support of broad U.S. national security goals, such as counterterrorism. Such assistance allows the United States to pursue certain objectives without large-scale commitments of U.S. forces overseas. In an era of limited resources and wariness about the value of large-scale U.S. interventions, policymakers have looked to SFA as a cost-limiting strategy. To support and strengthen such efforts, the RAND Corporation designed a strategy game that allows participants to explore the pros and cons of different SFA strategies, in different countries, under different conditions. The initial run of the game focused on Libya, but the game engine is applicable to any other country or region in which the United States, its allies, or its partners seek to develop robust SFA policies. To play the game, teams are allocated resources in the form of coins, which they distribute across a range of potential recipients of assistance in a target country. They are able to choose various types of operational capabilities in so doing. After they have allocated their coins, each play is adjudicated through a mixed method involving both stochastic rules and subject-matter expert decisions to determine the outcome of each investment the team makes. The method of adjudication is grounded in the best available knowledge about what factors have affected SFA programs negatively or positively in the past. Adjudication of strategic-level outcomes is based on expert opinion and takes place once the outcomes of specific investments have been determined. The game is designed to support play over different lengths of time and for repeat play, so teams can explore multiple strategies under different conditions and compare the resulting decisions. For example, teams can play multiple moves, sustaining or varying their strategy overtime to see how a particular SFA program might evolve over a long period.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2019
Accession Number
AD1077814

Entities

People

  • Adam R. Grissom
  • Christopher S. Chivvis
  • Elizabeth M. Bartels
  • Stacie L. Pettyjohn

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • European Union
  • Government (Foreign)
  • Military Assistance
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Probability
  • Probability Distributions
  • Public Policy
  • Security
  • Terrorists
  • Training
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States Africa Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.