Hamburg and Canberra — The German Wargaming Center (GWC) at Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg and Capital Shield will work together on AI-enabled crisis simulation.
Under the agreement, the GWC will use Capital Shield’s Foresight platform to design and run strategic simulation exercises. Foresight recreates the information environment decision-makers work in, including email, chat, news media and social media, so that researchers can study how decisions are made under uncertainty, time pressure and contradictory information.
The partners will also develop AI simulation agents together, designed to model adaptive behaviour in complex scenarios. The first use case is the simulation of state actors, bringing together the GWC’s scientific and methodological approaches with Capital Shield’s platform development.
“Wargaming makes visible the human decisions in which different assumptions, interests and options collide,” said Dr Joseph Verbovszky, Co-Director of the German Wargaming Center. “AI tools such as Capital Shield’s Foresight platform give us an environment for analysis and simulation in which we can examine those decisions in a structured way and trace their potential consequences. That opens up the possibility of gaining scientific insight at a greater scale than traditional methods allow. The joint development of AI agents is particularly exciting: working with AI often teaches us not only about machine intelligence, but also lets us question our assumptions about human behaviour.”
Working with AI often teaches us not only about machine intelligence, but also lets us question our assumptions about human behaviour.
Tim Hobbs, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Shield, said: “AI expands what is methodologically possible. Working with an academic institution such as the German Wargaming Center lets us test our simulation-based approaches critically against scientific expertise, and keep refining them.”
The collaboration sits at the intersection of wargaming, decision research and simulation. The agreement provides a framework for it to grow, and further joint projects are planned, including additional exercises and the continued development of the technology.
About the German Wargaming Center
The German Wargaming Center was founded at the Chair of Political Theory at Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg to strengthen strategic awareness among civilian and military decision-makers in and for Germany, across government and society, as a contribution to national resilience. It works to establish wargaming as a central tool for training, simulation and research, drawing on political science, psychology and strategic studies.
About Capital Shield
Capital Shield is a crisis simulation and wargaming company headquartered in Australia, working with defence organisations, government agencies and critical infrastructure operators. Its Foresight platform puts decision-makers inside realistic, high-stakes scenarios, and is often compared to a flight simulator for crisis leadership.
This release is adapted from the original announcement by Helmut Schmidt University, published in German. Quotations are translated.
