The Peace Support Operations Model: Origins, Development, Philosophy and Use

Abstract

This article is intended to give the reader of this special Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation edition an introduction to the UK Ministry of Defence’s Peace Support Operations Model (PSOM). It provides first a general description of the rationale and structure of the model, explaining something of the design philosophy and how this was translated into a viable game/model approach. The origins and need for a simple Irregular Warfare (IW) tool are explained and the expanding stakeholder interest catalogued. Issues of doctrine and terminology provided a constant challenge to the Study, and the PSOM’s efforts to navigate around these, and the friction from residual kinetic modelling legacy, is addressed. The progression from prototype to the current working model is described, along with the PSOM’s current development plans and approach. The intention to enhance the model’s representation of a number of ‘soft’ effects is stressed; some of these are introduced here and expanded in other papers included in this edition. Finally, a description of the extensive international collaboration and configuration control, particularly with the US, leaves the reader understanding that the PSOM provides a potentially unifying IW modelling approach to nations engaged in complex operations.