Applied History: Military Predictions
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$300.00
$300.00
per item
In this 36 week guided and interactive online high school course the student will use applied military history to predict America's next war. The student will then design and publish a commercial board game based on that war. The students will then, as a group, draft legislation to send to Washington military decision makers, transforming our current force structure into a force structure that is designed to win that war. They will then produce a video presenting their case for transformation and publish that on social media as a way of engaging the public in smart foreign policy. Please scroll down for more information.
"Prepare plans by consultation, and make war by wise guidance." -- Proverbs 20:18
Additional Resources required:
Free "MyHistro" account to create timelined map overlays
So, what's the story?
This course started with a realization that, if you don’t have a good military history, you really don’t get to spend much time writing the other kind!
I also had a military history professor at one point who was able to demonstrate that the trajectory of military art and science, rather than some vague sense of lucky guessing, was the real basis for military advancement.
Working in Afghanistan, Qatar, Iraq, and Lithuania also taught me the lucrative nature of military contracting.
These factors, combined with my personal love of history in general, made me want to demonstrate how studying history could actually be lucrative.
When I was in my first Masters’ program, the department head, during his course on Guerilla Warfare (awesome course title!) said: “The irony of military operations is that the less time that you need to do it well, the more time the American public is willing to give you to do it completely.”
This stuck with me, as I studied ways to “do it well.” I believed that criteria separated well-executed military operations from badly-conducted ones, and the standard answers didn’t seem to fit.
The more I learned, the more frustrated I was that the decision making I saw was ignoring what I had learned.
I tried again and again to get various military leaders to engage my ideas, but they would not. What was interesting was that they did not refute my theories. They just said that it could not be done in our military.
This scared me, as I continued to face adaptive foes in various far-off places, so I decided that responsible citizens should be able to ask the right questions of their military decision makers without it being either meddling or treasonous.
Thus was born Applied History: Military Predictions.
I also had a military history professor at one point who was able to demonstrate that the trajectory of military art and science, rather than some vague sense of lucky guessing, was the real basis for military advancement.
Working in Afghanistan, Qatar, Iraq, and Lithuania also taught me the lucrative nature of military contracting.
These factors, combined with my personal love of history in general, made me want to demonstrate how studying history could actually be lucrative.
When I was in my first Masters’ program, the department head, during his course on Guerilla Warfare (awesome course title!) said: “The irony of military operations is that the less time that you need to do it well, the more time the American public is willing to give you to do it completely.”
This stuck with me, as I studied ways to “do it well.” I believed that criteria separated well-executed military operations from badly-conducted ones, and the standard answers didn’t seem to fit.
The more I learned, the more frustrated I was that the decision making I saw was ignoring what I had learned.
I tried again and again to get various military leaders to engage my ideas, but they would not. What was interesting was that they did not refute my theories. They just said that it could not be done in our military.
This scared me, as I continued to face adaptive foes in various far-off places, so I decided that responsible citizens should be able to ask the right questions of their military decision makers without it being either meddling or treasonous.
Thus was born Applied History: Military Predictions.
Adult accomplishments
- A published and released commercial board game simulating America's next war
- Draft legislation sent to Washington military decision makers transforming our current military force structure into a force structure optimized to win America's next war
- A marketing plan for their board game
- A video trailer for their board game
- A video on the need for military transformation published on social media
- Crowdfunding campaign to fund video game production/publication
Transferable Skills
- Game design
- Ability to predict where America will need subject matter experts to support military efforts in the future
- Marketing planning
- Video advertising and persuasion
- Legislative writing
- Fundraising/crowdfunding
What careers will this course give me a leg up on?
- Game designer - Average Salary: $84,850 (https://www.indeed.com)
- Military Officer - Average Salary: $90,478 (https://www.glassdoor.com)
- Military Contractor - Average Salary: $93,961 (https://www.woman.thenest.com)
- Documentary Maker - Average Salary: $70,950 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
- Game Marketing Manager - Average Salary: $102,176 (https://www.indeed.com)
- Congressional Legislative Assistant - Average Salary: $47,660 (https://www.glassdoor.com)
- Politician - Average Salary: $174,000 (www.work.chron.com)
- Lobbyist - Average Salary: $108,727 (www.salary.com)
General syllabus (Subject to change as needed)
- Course Start: 21 August 2023
- Week 1:
- History of weaponry
- Week 2:
- History of protection
- Week 3:
- History of Military Communication (Command and Control)
- Week 4:
- History of Tactics and Strategy
- Week 5:
- History of logistics
- Week 6:
- Introduction to military analytical frameworks (Principles of War, CARVER, METT-T, etc.)
- Week 7:
- Geography of current inter-state conflicts
- Introduction to Game Theory
- Applying Game Theory to one current conflict for U.S. involvement
- Week 8:
- Geography of current intra-state conflicts
- Game Theory Analysis of one current intra-state conflict for U.S. involvement
- Week 9:
- Geography of potential inter-state conflicts
- Game Theory analysis of 5 of them for escalation to a shooting war
- Week 10:
- Geography of projected military technology for weaponry, protection, command and control, and logistics
- Game Theory on U.S. involvement in potential inter-state conflict with military tech impacting the analysis
- Week 11:
- Criteria for conflict emerging/escalating in next 7 years by region and level (must be supported from history, military frameworks, and Game Theory)
- Week 12:
- DECMAT to determine top 10 most likely conflicts to emerge in the next 7 years
- Game Theory analysis to determine U.S. involvement in these conflicts
- Week 13:
- Weighted list of U.S. and U.S. Allies' interests by region and military framework(s)
- Week 14: Thanksgiving Week
- Decision Matrix (DECMAT) to determine the top 5 most likely American shooting wars of the next 7 years
- Each conflict must be justified with historical precedent, analytical framework, and Game Theory
- Week 15:
- One page Conflict Narratives for each of the 5 American next shooting conflicts
- Week 16:
- Additional week to complete Conflict Narratives to standard
- Week 17:
- Critique Conflict Narratives
- Christmas Break: 18 December 2023 - 7 January 2024
- Week 18:
- Revise Conflict Narratives
- Select Conflict Narrative for America's Next War (ANW) Game
- Week 19:
- Contingencies/Hypotheticals for ANW
- Analysis from history, geography, and Game Theory as to their impact on the conduct of ANW
- Week 20:
- Military analytical frameworks analysis of ANW to determine how the war will actually be conducted
- Week 21:
- Limits Bounding Analysis (LBA) #1 on the game
- Initial game refinement (realism and simplifying assumptions)
- Game rule book
- Initial Beta test on rule book clarity
- Week 22:
- Game Refinement #2: Playability
- Week 23:
- Game Refinement #3: Aesthetics, components, and artwork
- Week 24:
- Game Marketing Plan
- Week 25:
- Game Refinement #4: General updates
- 1 minute "elevator pitch" video for the game
- Week 26:
- PUBLISH THE GAME!!!
- Week 27:
- Introduction to Systemic Operational Design (SOD)
- Introduction to visual metaphors
- Week 28:
- Current System initial framing (actors, factors, forces, and relationships)
- Spring Break: 25 - 31 March 2024
- Week 29:
- Current System initial visual metaphors
- Week 30:
- Current System writeup of Journey of Learning Narrative
- Video version of the Current System Frame presentation
- Week 31:
- Desired System initial framing
- Week 32:
- Desired System visual metaphors
- Desired System writeup of Journey of Learning Narrative
- Video presentation of the Desired System Frame
- Week 33:
- Opposition System initial framing
- Week 34:
- Opposition System visual metaphors
- Opposition System writeup of Journey of Learning Narrative
- Video presentation of the Desired System Frame
- Board Game video trailer
- Week 35:
- System of Intervention initial framing
- Week 36:
- System of Intervention visual metaphors and writeup of Journey of Learning Narrative
- Final LBA
- Final JOLN
- Final Class SOD Video for Transformation of the U.S. Armed Forces to win ANW
- Course End: 25 May 2024
Expected Workload
- Typically one or more tasks that you must perform to move your project iteratively "down the road"
- One or more discussion questions from the teacher to answer
- Ensuring that you go through any of the learning activities for skills where you are not yet proficient to help you in future weeks' tasks
***All of this is designed to take you about 5 focused hours per week, which is less than you would have if you were attending class in a traditional school.
How do I write this course up on a high school transcript?
- As a History credit, given the intensive and extensive amount of political/military history that the student digests in order to create their board game
- As a Business/Marketing elective, given the planning necessary in order to get the board game out to market, as well as the video advertisements for the board game, as well as the need for military transformation. Also the understanding of how legislation gets developed would be very useful in business down the line.
- As an International Relations elective, given the need to predict both the appearance and the nature of inter-state conflict is the essence of what international relations is