Each spring, the U.S. Army War College holds an International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise at Penn Carey Law, designed to engage and educate law students in the process of crisis negotiation at the strategic level.
For the two-day exercise, the students organized into nine teams, each representing a different nation, to resolve an international dispute in the South China Sea with diplomatic, informational, military, legal, and economic factors at play.
(Image: Courtesy of Penn Carey Law)
“One of the students I had in my JD/MBA summer class—he and his father had both been at the War College,” says Theodore K. Warner Professor of Law and professor of real estate Michael Knoll. “He came to me and suggested it would be a great idea to offer one of these simulations at Penn Carey Law, and I thought, absolutely.”
Knoll’s student was Aaron McKenney, now a lecturer in law at the Law School; his father is adjunct professor of law Colonel (Ret.) Paul McKenney. Together with Knoll and lecturer in law Daniel Shields, they have formed the core teaching unit of the Army War College course at Penn Carey Law since its inception.
One of the most unique aspects of the course is that it isn’t designed solely for students interested in careers in national security or the government.
“This is a pure simulation, interactive course,” says Knoll. “A fair amount of material is provided in advance, both written and from prerecorded lectures to get students up to speed. They then work together in nine different teams, ranging in size from about 6 to 10 students over the course of two days at a simulated UN conference to try to resolve an international crisis.”
Each year, about 75 students enroll in the course. For the two-day exercise, they are organized into nine teams, each representing a different nation, to resolve a challenging international dispute in the South China Sea with diplomatic, informational, military, legal, and economic factors at play.
“We do the challenges in the South China Sea, where China is expanding its claims beyond what international law in the past has sanctioned,” said Knoll. “This is a critically important issue today, and it becomes more and more important as we see our post-World War II rules-based system of international law sort of dissolving into a system based more on power than it was before the Second World War. The South China Sea is at the heart of it, and it involves many major countries. However this ultimately develops, it is going to affect the lives of our students for decades to come, and this exercise gives them a real chance to learn about this issue.”
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