BEING IN THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM: DEVELOPING STRATEGIC OPTIONS

SNAPSHOT

Faculty develop a national security crisis and SPOTLIGHT simulate placing the students on the National Security Council Staff to develop strategic options to This activity is an exciting way to engage drive U.S. foreign policy in response. By thrusting all students, whatever their interests. By students into positions of responsibility for solutions to having them grapple with actual real-world issues, this activity requires students to national security challenges facing the draw on what they have learned and to think on U.S. today, this activity makes classroom material feel relevant and urgent. their feet, and it fosters a deeper appreciation for Students interact with the issues they are the challenges associated with foreign policy work. hearing about on the news from the position of high-level decision-makers and take responsibility for designing solutions.

A major strength of this activity is its LESSON PLAN broad applicability. Though it is designed for a class on policy, it can be adapted Goals: to classes in a range of disciplines. For a science class, for example, simulate an NIH conference, or for a law class, Students learn to: simulate a landmark trial. • analyze trends in the security environment. • re-assess national interests and strategy. • think strategically about national security.

• practice working collaboratively in a national security setting. WAYS TO ADAPT • communicate analysis through oral and

written presentations. To include different viewpoints and foster appreciation for the various Class: interests implicated in any given negotiation, incorporate into the simulation a diverse range of actors, Central Challenges of National Security, including ones that may not typically be Strategy, and the Press (Harvard Kennedy present at the negotiating table in the School) and Cyberspace and real-life analog of the simulation. For a International Security (Harvard Extension climate policy simulation, for example, School) you might consider assigning students the roles of relevant stakeholders in government, business, public interest, Background: research, and other sectors. Students entering careers in any one sector will The activity places students in the White often need to coordinate with members of others to design sustainable, effective House Situation Room to wrestle with solutions, and this is a chance to contemporary challenges facing the practice the requisite skills. United States. For a semester-long course,

WAYS TO ADAPT this activity is used approximately once every three weeks so that students can You can adjust the frequency with which regularly apply what they have learned to you run a simulation to suit your course real-world problems and learn from needs, whether it’s a half-semester, year- previous attempts to address national long, or winter-term-only course. We security challenges. recommend running one simulation per course theme or topic so that students have an opportunity to engage with the By bringing students to engage closely key issues raised in the class. If, however, with the policy-writing process under this is not possible, you can run one conditions that evoke real-world simulation at the end of the term and use challenges, it teaches them that there is it as a chance for students to synthesize no correct answer to pressing foreign and apply all they have learned. policy problems. Rather, there are pros and cons to every strategic option for THINGS WE LIKE resolving the crisis. The effectiveness of this activity is evidenced by the fact that This activity teaches broadly applicable graduates regularly report using this skills for use both inside and outside the format of strategic thinking in their post- classroom, including policy analysis, graduate work lives, in both government strategy design, critical thinking, and the private sector. collaboration, and communication. These skills will benefit students going into Procedure- Before Class: a range of careers beyond just government. Using an approach pioneered by HKS WAYS TO ADAPT professor Graham Allison, faculty write a

case scenario that puts students inside the Adapt this activity for a more historically

situated course by running a simulation highest levels of the Executive Branch and makes them feel as if they are working on concerning a challenge the U.S., or the staff supporting the National Security another country or political entity (e.g., Council. The case scenario describes the the UN), has faced in the past. This crisis, captures individual bureaucratic modification would encourage students to appreciateWAYS the difficultiesTO ADAPT past leaders roles, and frames the problem for the have faced resolving issues whose students. The goal is for the students to solutionsTake into or account outcomes the we makeup now take of your for class, in terms of students’ various present, both orally and in written format, granted, and combat the hindsight bias professional interests and backgrounds, an answer to a challenge for the National to which students may fall victim when Security Advisor. to ensure that the simulation studyingincorporates historical an appropriately developments. diverse Make therange simulation of key more actors realistic. For bya policy having- What follows is a brief excerpt of the case, studentsoriented simulation, engage only for withexample, the primaryensure typically four pages long. Writing such a sourcesthat you that can were include available a range at of the relevant time of case study requires faculty to be familiar astakeholders relevant meeting from both or conference the public (e.g.,and private sectors in the simulation, with the current state of play within the the signing of a treaty). For inspiration, because students going into one sector National Security Council and the findwill oftenDana needMirsalis’s to work“Let’s andTry to negotiate Stop the international system. Here is an example of Tokugawawith members Shogunate of the from other Collapsing”to design the introduction to such a case scenario: onsustainable our activity solutions database that. will enjoy wide support. "After the craziness of campaigning, Alternatively, you can run a simulation on Donald Trump now finds himself reflecting an inchoate or impending national security challenge, e.g., climate change, on why he wanted the job. Specifically, nuclear warfare, information wars, during the recent 2015 visit of Chinese biotechnology threats, etc. Students can President Xi, he was struck by the rising engage with issues that policymakers are tensions over cyber espionage still in the early stages of addressing—or (particularly Chinese intelligence’s have not yet addressed—and identify downloading of 22 million personnel files, hurdles of designing innovative solutions.

including top-secret security clearances from the Office of Personnel THINGS WE LIKE Management); cyber theft (China’s intelligence communities’ successful Simulations such as this one give students purloining of $1 trillion in intellectual an opportunity to practice negotiating property from American corporations); their concerns and opinions with those of China’s claims to exclusive sovereignty others. The urgency and stakes of the over the territories of the South China Sea; simulation situation also make students and its construction of more than 3,000 mindful of the trade-off between being acres of islands that were previously efficient in designing solutions to urgent underwater shoals.” issues and being thoughtful and careful about fully considering the implications of The case then continues for three pages their proposals. to get students to feel as if they are “in the room.” THINGS WE LIKE Procedure- During Class: Having students prepare talking points for Faculty present case materials and give the media serves two important students readings to prepare them for the purposes:

scenario. Using these materials, students (1) It has students consolidate key points of their proposals and express them in draft strategic options memos. They frame layman terms. This is a great way for the core national security issue, identify them to check their own relevant national interests, and present an comprehension of the material and analysis of the key drivers and trends practice essential communication concerning the issue. Having thought skills. about the issue, students develop three (2) It forces students to consider the strategic options, identify their pros and public digestibility of their proposals cons, select one option, and discuss and to appreciate the implementation. At the close of the accountability that decision-makers activity, students submit a three-page have to the public in deciding the strategic option memo addressed to the way they do about contentious, National Security Advisor. Finally, students high-stakes issues. develop talking points to address with the media. WAYS TO ADAPT In implementing this activity, faculty should To make the simulation as realistic as establish clear directions, written to possible, design group sizes that reflect resemble directions the National Security the membership of the Council Advisor would actually give his or her staff. (proportional to your class size) and This gives students a concrete framework assign roles that correspond to this for delivering a presentation or memo. It is membership. This will enable students to also important that faculty research and get a sense of the power dynamics and simulate the inner workings of the National relationships between different roles and Security Council, e.g., to simulate how to appreciate the way in which group different personalities interact with one size and alliances affect the efficiency another and to convey what the core and effectiveness of different issues are. Including Tweets can help keep approaches to negotiation and problem- things interesting. solving.

THINGS WE LIKE Post-Activity:

In any setting in which one is expected to After the activity, faculty moderate a defend one’s position against those of group discussion of the case so that others, it is crucial that one understand students can contrast their approach to both the strengths and weaknesses of the problem with the approaches of their one’s position. This post-activity debrief peers. This debrief enables students to encourages students to reflect on where identify considerations they may have they can balance out and improve their missed, appreciate the pros and cons of proposals by looking to their peers’ other solutions, and explore ways of unique experiences and expertise for improving their own approach. inspiration.

Materials: WAYS TO ADAPT To ensure that students have a grounding in U.S. national interests, they are Depending on the type and goal of the simulation you run, adapt the readings to expected to read “Report of the include comprehensive overviews of the Commission on America’s National subject as well as some accessible Interests.” Further readings will vary by primary sources. Make sure you include case. To grasp the scope of the US–China texts written from a broad range of challenge, for example, students would angles so that the texts are not biased in read Graham T. Allisons’s Destined for War: favour of any particular position, Can America and China Escape the especially if the simulation concerns a Thucydides’s Trap? (Houghton Mifflin, contentious or politically divisive topic. 2017). To understand the scale of U.S. Consider including a range of non- foreign policy, in contrast, they would academic sources, such as newspaper read Foreign Policy and Defense Strategy: articles or op-eds, to expose students to The Evolution of an Incidental Superpower already existing stances on hot-button by Derek S. Reveron, Nikolas K. Gvosdev, topics that they can consider in and Mackubin T. Owens (Georgetown developing a solution that will also garner University Press, 2015). And, to appreciate public support. how cyber is an important tool of power,

they would read David Sanger’s The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age (Crown, 2018).

Submitted by Graham T. Allison, Derek Reveron, and David Sanger.