The Project on Nuclear Gaming (PoNG) is a multidisciplinary team formed by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.
PONG, led by the University of California, Berkeley, is one of a portfolio of Carnegie-funded projects aimed at understanding the impact of emerging technologies on strategic stability and nuclear risk reduction. The goals of the research project are threefold: 1) to raise understanding of nuclear deterrence and conflict escalation with an eye toward better informed scholarship; 2) to generate insights into the conditions that might contribute to stability and instability in the context of nuclear weapons optimized for specific military objectives; and 3) to develop game-based analytic and experimental tools for social science research and policy inquiry.
Our project involves three wargaming frameworks – a scenario-based discussion, table-top exercise, and an online video game named SIGNAL – to test the effects of varying military capabilities upon nuclear thresholds and escalation dynamics. In the process, we build a large-n dataset for quantitative analysis of game outcomes.
PoNG would like to recognize support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium (NSSC), and the Nuclear Policy Working Group (NPWG).