Summary

The convergence of military strategy and mathematics in war games, from medieval to modern times.

For centuries, both mathematical and military thinkers have used game-like scenarios to test their visions of mastering a complex world through symbolic operations. By the end of World War I, mathematical and military discourse in Germany simultaneously discovered the game as a productive concept. Mathematics and military strategy converged in World War II when mathematicians designed fields of operation. In this book, Philipp von Hilgers examines the theory and practice of war games through history, from the medieval game boards, captured on parchment, to the paper map exercises of the Third Reich. Von Hilgers considers how and why war games came to exist: why mathematical and military thinkers created simulations of one of the most unpredictable human activities on earth.

Von Hilgers begins with the medieval rythmomachia , or Battle of Numbers, then reconstructs the ideas about war and games in the baroque period. He investigates the role of George Leopold von Reiswitz's tactical war game in nineteenth-century Prussia and describes the artifact itself: a game board-topped table with drawers for game implements. He explains Clausewitz's emphasis on the "fog of war" and the accompanying element of incalculability, examines the contributions of such thinkers as Clausewitz, Leibniz, Wittgenstein, and von Neumann, and investigates the war games of the German military between the two World Wars. Baudrillard declared this to be the age of simulacra; war games stand contrariwise as simulations that have not been subsumed in absolute virtuality.

Choice Review

This short treatise on war, as viewed from an academic and mathematical perspective, may be of interest to a select few who view conflict as a game of chess or analytic skill, but is not of much use in today's world. Hilgers (managing director, Meetrics, Germany; formerly, history of science postdoctoral fellow, Harvard) substantiates War Games with copious footnotes and reference material, but does not provide relevant insight into modern warfare. He covers conflicts in the Middle Ages up through the world wars, emphasizing the use of games in German military operations. However, the days of using sand table displays and game boards to war-game conflict scenarios, as described here, are gone. Today, military victory rests firmly on the rapid gathering of intelligence, followed by even more rapid action. This book may be of historical interest, but a more relevant model for war-gaming is the recently released Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which brilliantly shows that a refined sense of visualization and a high degree of situational awareness is the key to military success today. Summing Up: Recommended. Specialized collections serving researchers/faculty. M. W. Carr US Army Watercraft & Riverine Operations