Practical Synergy between Wargaming and Futures Studies

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Futures Studies Group, Strategic Management Department, Supreme National Defense University

Abstract

The war game is an applied discipline aimed at serious games, while being professionally distinguished from futures studies, has its own special requirements and scientific community. Alongside the distinction, similarity of the two disciplines is significant, especially by non-educational games at the political and strategic levels. The problem is that if the commonalities and areas of synergy between the two disciplines are not well understood, the futile competition between the experts of the two disciplines will increase. For this purpose, in addition to archival studies and holding focus group meetings consisting of wargaming, futures studies and strategic studies activists, qualitative content analysis was used to professionally infer the relationship between the two fields.

It is possible to see the convergence of two disciplines in theoretical foundations, having common goals and areas of practical synergy, as well as the possibility of synergy in the field of method. These two have practical synergy with each other in cultivating agile thinkers and decision makers, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teaming, seeking participation from divergent thoughts, problem-oriented environment analysis, knowledge sharing, and upskilling in methods and technics. In the future, it is necessary to examine more closely the relationship between the scientific and administrative processes of the two fields for the educational and research synergy between the scientific centers of war games and futures, as well as the development of common tools and systems, which is reflected in the development of the idea of “futures lab”.

Keywords

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References

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Futures Studies Of The Islamic Revolution
Volume 5, Issue 3 - Serial Number 18
Autumn Quarterly
September 2024
Pages 181-205

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History

  • Receive Date: 03 July 2024
  • Revise Date: 17 July 2024
  • Accept Date: 05 September 2024
  • Publish Date: 22 September 2024

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