War Game

A special lavishly illustrated new edition of Michael Foreman's classic story. It's 1914 when everything changes for a group of boys growing up and playing football in the Suffolk countryside. Far away, in a place called Sarajevo, an Archduke has been killed and a web of global events results in a call for all British men to do their duty 'for King and Country' and join the army to fight the germans overseas. The boys sign up for what sounds like an adventure and a chance to see the world. After basic training the boys sail to France where they find themselves fighting on the front line. Living in the trenches in constant fear for their lives is nothing like they expected and only a bombed-out wasteland, no-man's-land, separates their trenches from those of their German enemies. Then, on Christmas Day, something remarkable happens as the German and British armies stop fighting and meet in the middle of no-man's-land. The enemies talk, play football and become friends. But the war isn't over, the two sides resume fighting and the group of Suffolk lads are ordered to charge across no-man's-land... From the author of War Boy, After the War Was Over, Farm Boy and Billy the Kid and the illustrator of Platinum Jubilee picture book There Once Is a Queen.

War gaming has become a characteristic feature of modern life. From amateur clubs to professional academicians playing the war game in the company of military circles, we have come up against the phenomenon of the "robotization" of human life. Irving Louis Horowitz argues that those who protest the idea that war is a game do so on moral grounds that leave unanswered tough questions: What is the alternative to playing the game? What will become of us if we allow the opponent to become the better "player" in an all-or-nothing game of extinction? Horowitz provides answers in a logical manner while focusing on facts and ethical alternatives to risky ethics. The work is divided into three sections: The New Civilian Militarists, Thermonuclear Peace and Its Political Equivalents, and General Theory of Conflict and Conflict Resolution. Included are such topics as arms, policies, and games; morals, missiles, and militarism; and conflict, consensus, and cooperation. Horowitz concludes that it is time to register the fact that the basic option to destructive uses of science is not traditional morality, but better science a science of survival. With a new introduction by Howard Schneiderman along with a major essay and other materials not included in the original edition, this classic work is a worthy contribution to intellectual debate in the twenty-first century and a must read for military strategists, sociologists, and historians.

From Rwanda to Afghanistan, from Sudan to Iraq, this devastating expose shows how the humanitarian aid industry, the media and warmongers are locked in a cycle of mutual dependency on battlefields around the world. 'Polman shines a light on the multibillion dollar juggernaut that is today's humanitarian aid network. A disturbing account that raises profound questions' Financial Times 'One of the finest reporting journalists of the modern age - Polman is gutsy, intellectually penetrating and far from naive' Evening Standard 'Cool, brusque, fearless. A marvellous account' Guardian

The convergence of military strategy and mathematics in war games, from medieval to modern times. For centuries, both mathematical and military thinkers have used game-like scenarios to test their visions of mastering a complex world through symbolic operations. By the end of World War I, mathematical and military discourse in Germany simultaneously discovered the game as a productive concept. Mathematics and military strategy converged in World War II when mathematicians designed fields of operation. In this book, Philipp von Hilgers examines the theory and practice of war games through history, from the medieval game boards, captured on parchment, to the paper map exercises of the Third Reich. Von Hilgers considers how and why war games came to exist: why mathematical and military thinkers created simulations of one of the most unpredictable human activities on earth. Von Hilgers begins with the medieval rythmomachia, or Battle of Numbers, then reconstructs the ideas about war and games in the baroque period. He investigates the role of George Leopold von Reiswitz's tactical war game in nineteenth-century Prussia and describes the artifact itself: a game board–topped table with drawers for game implements. He explains Clausewitz's emphasis on the “fog of war” and the accompanying element of incalculability, 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 simulations that have not been subsumed in absolute virtuality.

Fundamentals of War Gaming provides an in-depth introduction to the basics of military gaming, and offers historical insights into the devewlopment of war gaming methodologies. It covers the evolution of gaming tools such as the ancient adaptations of chess and the development of Kriegspiel to teach military tactics to Prussian officers. The employment of gaming by various military powers, before and during the World Wars, is explored and culminated with the introduction of computer support and simulations in the U.S. Navy.

Startling and disturbing, this is an up-to-date look at today's high-tech rehearsals for war. Political scenarios, military strategies and frightening, true-to-life maneuvers--all the games played by today's leaders are here, based on information gained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Offers a historical perspective on military gaming and the evolution of the tools and tactics used in ancient times up through modern computer simulations and includes examples of one- and multi-sided games as well as free-play and rigid-style games. Original.