The Confrontation Analysis Handbook: How to Resolve Confrontations by Eliminating Dilemmas Innovations in Wargaming Volume 3

by John Curry, Mike Young, Peter P. Perla (Foreword)

“This book makes an important contribution to the development of professional wargaming practise” Dr Peter Perla Confrontation Analysis, also called dilemma analysis or drama theory, was originally devised by Professor Nigel Howard in 1997 as a way of modelling crises. Although used by UK General Rupert Smith in his 2006 book The Utility of Force, the method fell into obscurity. After 10 years work in the defence sector, the method has been developed into a tool to model and help resolve international confrontations. This handbook aims to document the method and equip the reader to apply Confrontation Analysis as an operational analysis technique to structure, understand and think through multi-party interactions such as negotiations. It presents examples how to apply the method, with guidance on the steps to take. It is full of advice based on years of experience of the authors applying the method in the professional arena. All the case studies in this book have been used for real training and research. The chapters include examples ranging from the Iranian nuclear weapons crises 2010-15, to the Euro crisis of 2011. Each example is explained in detail to help the reader apply the method for themselves. Two variants of the method are included; the first uses the example of the Libyan Civil War (2011) to show how to quantifies the dilemmas to help users make judgements. The second uses user generated cards to map out the conflict space. The latter is illustrated by a wargame based on near future cyber conflict around the South China Sea. This handbook is published by the History of Wargaming Project as part of its ongoing work to document current practise in wargaming.

94 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 25, 2017

About the author

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See:
John Curry, Irish historian