Title:     Adjudication, the diabolus ex machina of wargaming

Author:  Dr. Stephen Downes-Martin

                Professor, Warfare Analysis

                US Naval War College

Abstract: Traditional adjudication methods break down when wargaming operational or strategic situations.  The root cause of this breakdown is the myth that wargaming is about player decisions and a proximate cause is adjudicators

acting as players.  Since we wargame because we want to find out something about the real world that we do not know, "player adjudicators" are by definition diabolus, not deus, ex machina; seductive, entertaining, compelling and destructive to using wargaming as an inquiry into the real operational and strategic world.  In this panel I will justify my claims about the problem and explain how adjudication of modern operational and strategic national security problems should be done.

Paper: Click Here

Last Updated: 26 June 2011