Academic Expertise

Dr David Banks is the founder and director of Pioneer Wargaming. He is Wargaming Lecturer at the War Studies Department at King’s College London, where he also serves as the Academic Director of the King’s Wargaming Network. He has designed a number of wargames for research and education and teaches two MA modules on wargaming methods and wargaming design. His current wargaming research is focused on determining epistemological standards for evaluating wargames as a research method. This includes projects on the foundations of wargaming, how to link theory to design, and the role of subject matter experts in professional wargames. In addition to his wargaming research, Dr. Banks is also an active political science scholar. He received his PhD in international relations and social science methods from the George Washington University in 2015.

Dr Banks brings an academic emphasis on rigour and intellectual transparency to his wargaming work. This extends to how he recruits and oversees contractors, all of whom have professional and academic backgrounds in wargaming (many being his former students).

He has provided wargame services for a variety of clients including Lloyds of London, NATO, UK MOD, BAE Systems, Vedette Consulting, the UK Defence Academy, and the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy.