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Welcome to our LECMgt blog site, which we will routinely update with new industry-related stories thought to be of interest and importance to you. Our objective is to expand your knowledge and awareness of best practices in wargaming exercises, threat assessment and emergency planning.
Wargaming: Decisions and Synthetic Experience by Roger Mason Introduction In his Critique of Pure Reason, published near the end of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant argued that it is possible to gather knowledge independent of experience (Kant 1781); but in the 20th century, educational theorists like John Dewey and Jean Piaget argued that people benefit…
Wargaming the Complexity Barrier by Roger Mason Introduction Is your wargame complex or just complicated? This is an old problem. From Arithmomachia (The Battle of Numbers) in the 11th century to wargaming asymmetric warfare, designers have sought to produce the most realistic model. The challenge has always been to capture the infinite elements and unpredictability…
Designing Homeland Security Games and Exercises by Roger Mason PhD Introduction Homeland security games helped to introduce the concept of the professional wargame. In the 1950s the RAND Corporation began experimenting with games that modeled possible nuclear attacks on the US mainland. Since then, professional games have been used to evaluate and analyze a wide…
Evaluating Wargames by Roger Mason PhD Every day, people rely on subjective evaluations. Subjective evaluations are easy to make. They require no measurement and limited proof to support a conclusion.Subjective evaluations underpin everything from the best pizza in town to how to invest your retirement funds. The problem is the factors that make subjective evaluations…
Prediction and Validation in Wargaming: Are they possible? by Roger Mason PhD Introduction For the past three millennia, people have longed for the ability to predict the future. From 800 BC, the most sacred shrine in ancient Greece was the Oracle of Delphi. Alexander the Great consulted with the Oracle before attempting to conquer the…
Improving Law Enforcement ICS by Roger Mason PhD Introduction Since the 1980s the United States has employed the Incident Command System (ICS) to manage disasters, emergencies, and public safety incidents. While law enforcement and the fire service share this system their application of ICS is quite different. People have complained that police organizations have lagged…
Iceberg Dead Ahead: Practical Tips for New Emergency Managers by Roger Mason PhD In any organization or community few positions are more important than the emergency manager. The emergency manager is responsible for the safety and survival of an organization or community. Some organizations use the emergency management position as a collateral duty or combine…
Facilitating Tabletop Exercises by Roger Mason PhD Introduction Tabletop exercises are employed by a wide variety of organizations and individuals to explore problems, assess readiness, and train individuals. There are two parts to a successful tabletop exercise, the design of the exercise and the facilitation of event. I have attended, participated in, and designed scores…