Bomb and the Computer, The

War games—originally a system of tabletop maneuvers adopted by the Prussian army to try out new tactics—are today played by computer to gain answers about the outcome of a nuclear war. Andrew Wilson's book is the first to describe, for the general reader, the evolution of the war game as a serious, and often unreliable, military planning device. It led to disaster in the hands of the German General Staff in 1914, and in those of the Japanese navy in 1941. Later in World War II, more scientific methods of operation research were perfected; but these proved impotent to answer questions presented by the H-bomb. Wilson explains how the war game came to be resurrected as a means of providing "synthetic war experience" through which to gain insights into nuclear problems, and those of other kinds of "unconventional" war, such as the war in Vietnam. He critically appraises its uses, limitations, and pitfalls, and describes how war games are today used for research into international relations, the analysis of new weapons systems, and the generation of "scenarios" about the future of the human race.