Psychological dimensions of game simulation in military affairs

Abstract

War is a special state condition/circumstance and a process for the state and for a society. It requires an exceptional strain exertion of all the elements and functions of their potential. As a phenomenon, war is a derivative form of a conflict. The conflict has a fundamental significance importance for human relations and is characterized by violence, uncertainty, contingency and contradictions. In the cultural-historical plan aspect, the play game of attribution is often attributed to the emanation of armed struggle. The game is a phenomenon that in due course acquired the signs of the cultural function of war. The game balances the truculent manifestations between people, provides optimal forms of conflict resolution without inexpedient loss of resources of the participants in the confrontation. Modern forms of solving military-political contradictions were embodied in the triune “concept of a hard, soft and intelligent force.” The content and processes of this concept are playful in nature. Formats of modern confrontation: hybrid war, mediated or proxy war, asymmetric war, network (network-centric) war, etc., have a game functional. Its unifying feature is a conscious, deliberate premeditated reduction in the use of classic, traditional, conventional forms of armed struggle with a simultaneous increase in non-military, non-conventional, irregular, unforeseen international law of war forms of military and political influence. According to the strategic forecasts of specialists the probability of mediated wars will increase  in the future. Asymmetric methods of confrontation will be of primary importance. Modern and future confrontation will be carried out on the principles of complementarity, the functional complement of the elements of the situation with the qualities of its subject and vice versa. Also the priority of the paths of least resistance will be important; continuity of action and the principle of an indirect, secretive, asymmetric action. This indicates the final interpenetration of eastern and western cultures. The principle of indirect, secretive, asymmetric action is form-building formative for modern military affairs. This reinforces the importance of the game as an attribute of confrontation. In such conditions armed confrontation tends to situations when conflicting sides select the most effective ways of influencing the enemy. Also armed confrontation has a tendency to the accelerated changes in the use of the entire range of means – from open armed violence to covert acts and cultural and economic impacts. The basis of such logic is contained in the balance between minimizing resources and maximizing the achievements of the subject of the struggle. Self-organization of such a subject must correspond to the situation, the chronotope of the event process of confrontation. The structure of the activity of the subject of confrontation conditionally consists of external-subject activity (the activity of the subject-actor) and internal-subject activity or reflection. The outer-subject center of activity is a set of measures to create an illusion of the opponent’s perception of the confrontation situation. Also here is the distortion of his thinking in a conflict situation and the creation of illusions of anticipation. The internal-subject center of activity is the saving of emotional balance and high cognitive, reflective competence of the subject in the process of conflict. It is expediently to build the structure of its participation in the confrontation taxonomically as a cycle of action according to the certain stages. The aspects (or stages) of the action should functionally correspond to a certain level of resolution of the confrontation situation from the beginning of the risks formation of the problem through the strengthening of its evidence to stabilizing the conflict situation and its accomplishment. The high speed of the subject’s cycle of actions and the prevalence of the accuracy of his assessments and reactions in relation to his own cycle and the opponent’s cycle provides an advantage over the opponent and increases the chances to gain victory in the confrontation.