About THE NEW MAP GAME

What is War Gaming?

THE NEW MAP GAME is based on the principles of war gaming developed and used by military strategists for decades. War games are excellent planning tools to educate participants about a particular issue, help prepare decision makers for unexpected events, explore alternative futures and assist institutions dealing with high rates of change or intense competition.

above — Jeff Cares of Alidade Incorporated leads a discussion at THE NEW MAP GAME: Newport, 2005.

Who Should Play?

THE NEW MAP GAME is an ideal experience for military and civilian leaders who are faced with long-range strategic decisions in highly dynamic and uncertain environments. This game provides indispensable lessons for institutions in the throes of transformation — without exposing them to real-world risk, trial-and-error, failure or collapse. It is well-suited for senior policy makers and defense officials, corporate leaders and strategic planners.

Participants in THE NEW MAP GAME will:

  • Learn how the changing global landscape may affect grand strategy and international business opportunities in the near and long-term
  • Work with other high-caliber business leaders, innovators, military strategists and policy makers
  • Get a preview of Dr. Barnett's new book, due Fall 2005, Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating
  • Help evolve and test Dr. Barnett's theories, contributing to his future work

What is The Pentagon's New Map?

In December 2002, Esquire magazine selected Thomas P.M. Barnett as "The Strategist" in a special edition titled "The Best and the Brightest" and followed in March 2003 with the publication of his landmark article, "The Pentagon's New Map." The compelling brief that he has created and delivered to several thousand high-level U.S. government officials was expanded and published as The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty First Century and quickly became a New York Times bestseller.

"America stands at an historical tipping-point," Barnett says, "filled with unprecedented dangers but also the promise that globalization may be expanded from a closed club of rich countries to a planet-wide reality." He envisions this "future worth creating" and outlines how U.S. "security exports" can make it happen. Offering readers the equivalent of a top-level Pentagon strategy seminar, he provides answers to the crucial questions we are all asking: What have we gained (or lost) in Iraq? Where does the payoff lie? How will we know when the war on terrorism is won? Will we ever be truly safe from attack? What does the future hold?

Drawing a new map around much of the world's mid-section, Barnett identifies the regions where threats to national and international security are likely to emerge, which he calls the Non-Integrating Gap. The Gap stretches from the Andean nations of Latin America and the Caribbean Basin to sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and much of Southeast Asia. In Barnett's view, the Gap is dangerous because it is disconnected from the institutions and infrastructure of economic globalization. He contends that the Gap needs to be integrated into globalization's Functioning Core in order to prevent further terrorist attacks like 9/11, and to bring about lasting peace. His mantras of national security thus become, "Disconnectedness defines danger," and "Shrink the Gap." Furthermore, Barnett says, the U.S. military must shift from preparing for war against great powers to an entirely different strategy that anticipates a series of long-term engagements in the Gap in the service of a "future worth creating." The implications of Barnett's new grand strategy are profound and controversial, since they involve major changes in every aspect of military organization, foreign policy, and national strategy.

Laying out a new security strategy that the U.S. government and the American public have been waiting for since the end of the Cold War (and even more urgently since 9/11), The Pentagon's New Map is the intellectual successor to George Kennan and his famous X Article, which revealed the grand strategy of Soviet containment in the aftermath of World War II. Unlike the authors of other books dealing with similar themes, Barnett is not a media commentator or an academic observer, but an experienced practitioner of national security strategy at the highest levels. His outlook has been driven and shaped by the massive shift in strategy that has occurred within the Bush administration since 9/11. Indeed, his book is in many ways an insider account of the emerging logic of the new national security strategies of preemption, regime change, and the global war on terrorism.

above — The Map: The Core and The Gap click for enlargement

How Does THE NEW MAP GAME Work?

Participants are divided into four teams representing countries from each of the geo-political segments described in The Pentagon's New Map:

  • Old Core — states that are well-established politically and economically and helped create and maintain modern international structures (e.g., US, EU, Australia, Japan)
  • New Core — states that represent emerging economic markets and nascent centers of post-Cold War geo-political power (e.g., China, India, Russia)
  • Seam States — states through which Gap states from the Gap look to infiltrate the Core (e.g., Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Pakistan)
  • Gap — those states that are disconnected from the international system, characterized by repressive regimes, chronic poverty, disease and conflict (e.g. Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan)

The four teams in the most recent New Map Game (Newport, 2005) represented the United States, China, Brazil and Iran.

One way to think of a team is as a collection of the most influential people in a country. Each team is led by a Team Captain, a game participant who is selected, notified and trained before the start of the competition. As a team's head of state, a Team Captain presides over team deliberations and makes all final decisions. Each participant is provided a gamebook prior to the game that describes their country's background, its relations with the other countries and the types of actions available during play. A facilitators will be present to guide a team's deliberations and to assist the Team Captain.

The game follows a turn-based system of play. There are five turns, each representing two years of "real" time: Turn 1 starts in 2006 and the game ends in 2016. An evolving narrative informs interactions between the teams. Each team can take a number of actions during turn, such as economic, military or diplomatic activities. At the end of each turn, each team briefs a Control Team member on the actions they intend to take. The Control Team, led by Thomas Barnett and made up of a select group of experts, meets as a group, evaluates teams' decisions and determines the results of country interactions. A Control Team member then informs each team of the apparent success or failure of their actions. The outcomes of each turn will therefore influence team decisions in subsequent turns.

Each team will have its own goals that may be in conflict with those of another team. At the end of the game, teams will be evaluated on the extent to which they satisfied their assigned goals.

The overall goal of THE NEW MAP GAME is to explore competition in a simulated world and identify the conditions that foster the rule of law, collective security, economic connectivity, political community, and free markets that are protected from destabilizing strife.

For more information about The New Map Game please contact Betty Cares at betty AT alidade.net