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Military Decision and Game Theory

Author

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  • O. G. Haywood

    (Missile Systems Laboratory, Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., Whitestone, New York)

Abstract

The United States military doctrine of decision prescribes that a commander select the course of action which offers the greatest promise of success in view of the enemy's capabilities of opposing him. This paper analyzes two battle decisions of World War II, and develops the analogy between existing military doctrine and the “theory of games” proposed by von Neumann. Current U.S. doctrine is conservative. The techniques of game theory permit analysis of the risk involved if the commander deviates from current doctrine to base his decision on his estimate of what his enemy intends to do rather than on what his enemy is capable of doing. The idea of “mixed strategies” presents more difficulties but may be useful, particularly for command decisions for small military organizations. Operations Research , ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.

Suggested Citation

  • O. G. Haywood, 1954. "Military Decision and Game Theory," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 2(4), pages 365-385, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:2:y:1954:i:4:p:365-385
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.2.4.365
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    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Mongin, 2018. "A game-theoretic analysis of the Waterloo campaign and some comments on the analytic narrative project," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 12(3), pages 451-480, September.
    2. Kose, Erkan & Erbas, Mehmet & Ersen, Erkan, 2017. "An integrated approach based on game theory and geographical information systems to solve decision problems," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 308(C), pages 105-114.
    3. Mongin, Philippe, 2007. "Une étude d'histoire militaire instruite par la Théorie des jeux et quelques amplifications Méthodologiques," HEC Research Papers Series 866, HEC Paris.
    4. Dhruva Kartik & Ashutosh Nayyar, 2021. "Upper and Lower Values in Zero-Sum Stochastic Games with Asymmetric Information," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 363-388, June.
    5. Christopher Cotton & Chang Liu, 2011. "100 Horsemen and the empty city: A game theoretic examination of deception in Chinese military legend," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 48(2), pages 217-223, March.
    6. Bertrand Crettez & Régis Deloche, 2018. "An analytic narrative of Caesar’s death: Suicide or not? That is the question," Rationality and Society, , vol. 30(3), pages 332-349, August.
    7. Christopher Cotton & Chang Liu, 2010. "100 Horsemen and the Empty City: A Game Theoretic Exploration of Deception in Chinese Military Legend," Working Papers 2010-22, University of Miami, Department of Economics.

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