In 2009 the pentagon simulated an economic warfare. This was no traditional battle game, but rather the Pentagon’s first economic war game. The military are worried about the market. China owns much of the debt, the US’s most powerful rival and threat. That makes America vulnerable to a new kind of bloodless but ruthless war. Bankers were brought in from Wall Street. They were sent into “bunker rooms” and went at it using financial and economic tools to bring the other countries down.
When the game was halted, the result left the military men quiet and sobered. Why did the bankers scare the soldiers? By playing this economic war game, the bankers discovered that China could, hypothetically, win any number of foreign policy objectives by even making it impossible for you to pay your mortgage. China proved to be a growing power that would rein over all the other competing economies. At the end of that Pentagon session, the 80-odd players returned from their bunkers and assessed the damage. China won, without so much as reaching for a gun. The soldiers looked at each other and wondered if it was still only a game.
Title: Pentagon Prepares for Economic Warfare
Source: The Australian August 20, 2011
Author: Helen Rumbelow
www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/pentagon-prepares-for-economic-warfare
Student Researcher- Cameron Orsi, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluator- Robert Eyler, Sonoma State University