Journal of Defense Management
Open Access

Abstract

Applied Game Theory to Improve Strategic and Tactical Military Decisions

William P Fox

In 2003, LTC Cantwell proposed a methodology using zero-sum games to improve military decision making in choosing courses of action. He proposed using ordinal values to fill in the zero-sum payoff matrix for the USA and the opponent and then solve the game. We propose a method and illustrate his example after we have replaced the ordinal values with cardinal values using multi-attribute decision making techniques. The result should be more meaningful with more accurate preferences and utilities. We extend the analysis by transforming the game from a zero-sum to a non-zero sum game and examined the solutions. Comparisons are made and discussed.