Pentagon runs economic wargames

Partisan

Partisan

Active member
Saw this on CNN and I thought that it is really worth looking at.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21053.html

I decided to post it here as I would like to find out more about the "other" players quoted in the article. It also links to stories about manipulation of the stock market prior to 9/11 - although I haven't investigated that fully, it's in my to do book, 1700 items and climbing!

I'm impressed that the Pentagon is taker a much more holistic approach to warfare, recognising that threats to a nation don't just have to be in the form of bullets - does this mean that we'll be seeing an economists branch in 1 of the 3 services? I wonder how tied in some of the other agencies were and whether this will be incorporated into threat analyses in the future?

Over to you chaps.
 
It's interesting that the Pentagon would be doing this. You'd think this would be handled by another government agency. I think the Pentagon should be aware of such things and officers of a certain grade should be pretty familiar with economics but as for it falling under the Pentagon's jurisdiction, hmmm... only the military aspect I guess or else they'd really be going beyond the scope of their mission.
 
I never thought that it would be run by the Pentagon directly, however I have always imagined that there were probably gnomes in back rooms somewhere manipulating exchange rates etc., to disadvantage those who are out of favour.

It just seemed illogical that they would not be doing something like that. This is where we will have to be careful of China, as their share of the economic market improves, they will hold more sway in world economic outcomes.
 
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senojekips said:
I never thought that it would be run by the Pentagon directly, however I have always imagined that there were probably gnomes in back rooms somewhere manipulating exchange rates etc., to disadvantage those who are out of favour.

It just seemed illogical that they would not be doing something like that. This is where we will have to be careful of China, as their share of the economic market improves, they will hold more sway in world economic outcomes.
Click to expand...

It makes sense, after all the DoD is charged with the defence of the USA, it is a logical progression, just as aviation, sub sea & space became theatres of war, so does the economy.

From the report they used specialists (bankers etc & there are quite a few free these days) to run these teams. The Chinese managed to come out as the major winners as the US team was busy counteracting Russia & trying to figure out what the "Other" team were doing.

I think that it is smart to run this kind of exercise, so that people can start to recognise signs, anamalous shifts in stocks, runs on currencies or plain odd stuff - but it must be people, not using the automated stock trading system, which is too open to rigging, which could trigger the event itself.

I think my concern is that econimic defence becomes the purview of the DoD, then what else gets linked into Defence. This should sit within the Treasury, but with military liaison to ensure fast reaction to potential situations - now we are truly approaching the age of Total War.
 
I think running wargames on these things are a great idea but I'm just surprised that it fell under the jurisdiction of the Pentagon.
 
I think it probably happened because of their experience & expertise in running these kinds of exercises, along with the fact that they probably thought of it first & stole a march on everyone else!
 
There are simply so many things that fall under the category of defending the country that's kind of why.
Or else if we follow the "defending the country" logic, the military should be in charge of airports, sea ports, local counter-terrorism etc. to the point that the military will be stretched even thinner than it already is.
 
Of course it would be naeive to consider that USA will not be subject to financial and economic attack, and we were provided recently with an example of the vulnerability which could occur. I think it does beg the question -'Why not The Pentagon'? Very interesting proposition.
 
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To my mind subject matter experts (SME) should be used wherever possible. The Armed Forces are good at putting bullets down range, moving & resupplying men, taking & holding ground etc. They aren't experts in the financial field - that is the Dept of Treasury.

The same way that the Pentagon is not lead agency for diplomacy - unless it is of the forceful kind, it should not be lead agency for defence against economic warfare, but it should be involved.

However I think someone senses a new empire, a few more generals at the trough & a bit more budget which can be reallocated, so it will probably come down to a turf war, Bloods & Crips all over again?
 
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