#8--Sebastian Bae

Controversy & Clarity

In this episode, we discuss

-What drew Sebastian to the Marine Corps and the infantry in particular

-The persistent public view of the Marine Corps as an all-infantry force

-The future of the ‘Every Marine a Rifleman’ ethos

-The wearing away of front lines and rear areas in modern-day warfare

-What Sebastian’s Marine Corps boot camp experience was like

-Sebastian’s thoughts on changing bootcamp

-His experiences at the School of Infantry-East

-What it was like serving as a reserve enlisted infantryman

-The stigma against reserve Marines

-Some things Sebastian wishes active-duty Marines understood about reservists

-Sebastian’s pre-deployment training and preparations for Iraq

-His experience of breaking the news to his mother of his impending deployment to Iraq

-Sebastian’s deployment to Ramadi, Iraq

-Sebastian’s interactions with the Iraqis

-What he took away from the deployment

-How Sebastian’s operational experiences have influenced how he designs, develops, and facilitates wargames

-How good decision games pose dilemmas to participants

-Sebastian’s words of advice to young Marine reservists and those interested in the reserves

-How Sebastian got into wargaming

-How he learned how to design and facilitate wargames

-How Sebastian defines “wargame”

-The differences between analytical and educational wargames

-Sebastian’s thoughts on the educational utility of commercial wargames

-The design “autopsies” Sebastian runs in his wargame design courses

-Sebastian’s two “translation points” for wargames

-How the wargame design process enriches the designer

-Why Sebastian prefers digital wargames for personal use and analog games for professional purposes

-What matrix games and operational decision games are

-The differences and similarities between different kinds of decision games

-Where wargames fail most

-The most common barriers to getting people interested in wargaming

-How Sebastian wound up teaching wargame design at Georgetown University

-Some of the standout student games from the wargame design course

-Where the historical settings for those games came from

-What inspired Sebastian to create the Georgetown University Wargaming Society (GUWS)

-What GUWS has been up to lately

-GUWS’ collaborations with the Army War College, Naval War College, and other organizations

-The value proposition of playing wargames for Marines

-Sebastian’s thoughts on the most effective way to introduce Marines to wargaming

-His wargaming work with the Marine Corps’ Command and Staff College and US Naval Academy

-Sebastian’s work with the Wargaming Division at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab

-Sebastian’s thoughts on SOI-W’s incorporation of chess into the new Infantry Marine Course

-Sebastian’s contribution to the Rand report, “Next Generation Wargaming for the Marine Corps”

-The addendum Sebastian would write to the report to reflect the realities of COVID-19

-Where Sebastian thinks the Marine Corps gets wargaming right

-Where the Marine Corps could improve with wargaming

-What Sebastian would do with wargames if he were Commandant of the Marine Corps for the day

Links

-Sebastian’s RAND profile page: https://www.rand.org/about/people/b/bae_sebastian_joon.html

-Georgetown University Wargaming Society: https://www.guwargaming.org/

-(RAND) Next-Generation Wargaming for the U.S. Marine Corps: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2227.html

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