Modelling Information Warfare as a Game

Game theory is one of the possible ways to study information warfare with mathematical models. This paper presents four example games which illustrate the different requirements for an effective playing strategy in information warfare. These games study, how a bold playing strategy can lead to domination, how a mixed playing strategy can reduce domination, how it can be useful to play a dominating strategy only part of the time, and how excessive domination can lead to rebels where all playing parties lose. This paper also describes meta-strategies whose goal is to modify the perceived costs and conditions of a game. This kind of perception management is closely related to the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop. Keywords: Information warfare, game theory, OODA-loop.