Cadets and students in Intelligence and Security Studies will soon have more opportunities to make difficult decisions under pressure, and sometimes, to make the wrong one.
That space to fail is part of the training: a feature, not a bug. A new $250,000 federal grant from the Department of War will establish the Intelligence Futures and Judgment Lab, expanding 91ΑΤΖζβs use of wargaming to help students practice decision-making involving complex national security scenarios in a simulated setting before the consequences are real.
The federal grant will allow the college to build on years of wargaming work by adding the people, programming and technology needed to expand it. This effort includes a dedicated director of wargames, support for the annual Day of Intrigue exercise and a fellows program that will pair government participants with those who work in the private sector.
With this federal grant, faculty plan to weave wargaming more deeply into the intelligence curriculum, allowing cadets to encounter simulations throughout their four years rather than only near the end of their studies.
βThis exciting new partnership is a big step forward in preparing the next generation of principled leaders,β said Col. Brian Madison Jones, Ph.D., dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. βItβs a dynamic and substantive experiential learning opportunity for all our cadets, and Iβm thrilled that their efforts will help strengthen national security. Most importantly, the lab will demonstrate just how critical human judgment is in the age of artificial intelligence and showcase how the humanities and social sciences prepare students to thrive in this challenging space.β