Cadets Solve International Crisis

Our cadets are studying the Middle East this year, and it has been an enlightening experience. They have written papers about countries in the Middle East, and they have learned the duties of members of our government who must promote foreign policy for the United States. From Ambassadors to the President they learned how we deal with international relations and how we handle a crisis in the world. To tie it all together, we conducted a crisis situation exercise involving the Middle East and assigned each cadet a position in the government. We had Ambassadors from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon plus a US Ambassador to the United Nations. The Secretary of State guided their actions.

On the military side we had a Secretary of Defense, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, CENTCOM Commander and commanders of land, sea, and air forces. Each day the Director of National Intelligence provided the current situation and updated it during the class period with new - and sometimes spectacular - information that made decisions change. The scenario was as real-life and real-time as possible using current situations and international leaders. Each day started in the White House Situation Room and broke up to the "Tank" in the Pentagon and State Department conference room. At the end of each period, a course of action was briefed to the President. We believe that our cadets learned a great deal about diplomacy, national security policy, international relations - and decision making.