War Games ─ A History of War on Paper

For centuries, both mathematical and military thinkers have used game-like scenariosto test their visions of mastering a complex world through symbolic operations. By the end of WorldWar I, mathematical and military discourse in Germany simultaneously discovered the game as aproductive concept. Mathematics and military strategy converged in World War II when mathematiciansdesigned fields of operation. In this book, Philipp von Hilgers examines the theory and practice ofwar games through history, from the medieval game boards, captured on parchment, to the paper mapexercises of the Third Reich. Von Hilgers considers how and why war games came to exist: whymathematical and military thinkers created simulations of one of the most unpredictable humanactivities on earth. Von Hilgers begins with the medieval rythmomachia, or Battleof Numbers, then reconstructs the ideas about war and games in the baroque period. He investigatesthe role of George Leopold von Reiswitz's tactical war game in nineteenth-century Prussia anddescribes the artifact itself: a game board--topped table with drawers for game implements. Heexplains Clausewitz's emphasis on the "fog of war" and the accompanying element ofincalculability, 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 simulationsthat have not been subsumed in absolute virtuality.

Philipp von Hilgers, recently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, is Managing Director at Meetrics, a Berlin-based company for Web analytics and the measurement of online reading activities.