Assembling wargaming into a political endeavor: the case of a NATO-Russia confrontation in the Baltics

Although wargaming has received increased academic attention over the past decade – notably from the fields of cognitive and social psychology that have emphasized the compelling power of participative simulations – its role in propelling political decisions remains unexplored. This article fills this gap by exploring how the RAND 2014-2015 wargame shaped NATO’s decision to deploy troops in the Baltic region. To that end, this article suggests that developing a holistic take on what wargaming encompasses would allow for a better understanding of its overall persuasive capabilities. As an assemblage of practices, wargaming is apprehended from its inception, the setting up of its technical characteristics and parameters, to the dissemination of its results, as well as all the actors involved and their personal interests, and finally the context in which they are embedded. As a result, this article provides a new understanding of wargaming as means of prompting political decisions by unpacking its intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics.