Politics in Wargaming and Wargaming Politics w/ Jason Matthews

Since late stages of the Gupta Empire developed chess in India, war gaming has been used to train leaders in strategy and warfare. However, as the military developed into a profession and specialized skill in the West, military simulation slowly abandoned its connection to political decision making. War games became an application of mathematics, military science a poor cousin to engineering. After the Vietnam War, American military planners, and even the wargaming hobby realized that Clausewitz was right. Warfare is politics by other means. Matthews will discuss the evolution of the simulation of politics in war gaming from the earliest uses of charts, and politics as a "random event" to the modern development of Pol/Mil simulations that put most of their emphasis on the political aspects of conflict.

Bio

Jason Matthews is a board game designer most famous for the award-winning Twilight Struggle by GMT games, which topped the ratings list of Board Game Geek for seven years. Jason’s designs have won numerous awards including the International Gamers Award, multiple Golden Geek Awards, and the prestigious Charles S. Roberts Award for Conflict Simulation Design.

Jason has co-designed 7 board games, Twilight Struggle was followed by 1960: Making of a President, Campaign Manager 2008, Founding Fathers and 1989 and most recently Imperial Struggle which won the 2020 Board Game Geek award for Best Wargame. He is also the author of numerous published reviews, gaming expansions and has playtest credits for several wargame designs.

Jason entered the hobby when his father bought him a copy of Axis & Allies in the late 80s and he went on to explore historical miniatures, collectible card games, and of course the broader board gaming hobby.

Matthews hails from Southern California, where he went to undergrad at the University of Redlands. He earned his JD at Southern Illinois University. He currently resides in the DC metro area. He spent 13 years working in the United States Senate, several of them working with the Armed Services Committee and issues of foreign affairs, defense, and homeland security. Jason is now a federal lobbyist.

Jason has two children, both accomplished gamers, Owen and Eliza.