ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿

Bridging the Classroom and the Real World

CMIST Faculty Use Simulations and Debates to Deepen Engagement with Complex Political Issues

From great power competition to current debates in American politics, to the impact that new technologies are having on diplomacy, military strategy, and international affairs, students at the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST) study complex political issues. To help students build bridges between their coursework and the real world, CMIST faculty regularly incorporate hands-on learning activities, such as debates and simulations. In addition to bringing key texts and historical events to life, these activities enable students to identify the contours of ongoing debates in the field, build their professional skills, and apply their learning to what is going on in the world today. 

This dedication to fostering a learning environment in which students can deeply engage with course content begins in the introductory courses that provide the foundation for CMIST’s three majors and six minors. For example, in his course on comparative politics, Ignacio Arana Araya, CMIST assistant professor, asks students to play “rock, paper, scissors” with each other, with the caveat that any participating student must be willing to be challenged by other players. The fast-paced game helps illustrate a chaotic world in which everyone is at war with each other, such as the world memorably described by Thomas Hobbes in “The Leviathan” (1651) as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Participation is voluntary, but in Arana’s experience, everyone chooses to play. While the game can lead to some chaos and laughter, Arana uses the exercise to reflect on a serious topic; the goal is to show what happens when there is no functioning state to provide security and prosperity. In this way, he helps students make connections between foundational texts in the discipline and contemporary political systems. 

Likewise, John Chin, assistant teaching professor at CMIST, regularly uses simulations and debates in his introductory classes on political science and international relations, as well as in his courses on diplomacy and statecraft and nonviolent conflict and revolution. He finds that the exercises help students make connections between assigned readings and the real world, which can be particularly helpful for survey courses that cover a variety of topics. For example, students in Chin’s international relations class this spring participated in three simulations—of Europe in July 1914 to explore the causes of World War I, international trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization, and global climate negotiations at the United Nations Security Council. From a student perspective, David Abrams noted that the simulations helped him connect to the course concepts. For example, the results of the mock climate summit highlighted the challenges to international cooperation. “Each country did what was best for them, even though the rest of the world would benefit from everyone cooperating to solve climate change,” Abrams observed.

Structured in-class activities such as debates also have the benefit of helping students better understand contrasting viewpoints on a particular issue. During two in-class debates this spring, Molly Dunigan, a senior lecturer in CMIST, prompted students in her civil-military relations class to take on the roles of congressional staffers, as well as academic experts on military professionalism. In each debate, students were assigned a role and required to anticipate and respond to opposing arguments to course-related topics, such as whether it is ever appropriate (or necessary) for military officers to openly express dissent against a particular policy or the stance of a civilian policymaker.

In addition to debates, taking on the role of an influential decision-maker gives students the opportunity to think through complex material. One topic assistant professor Joshua Schwartz wants students in his remote systems and the cyber domain class to understand is the potential for cyber tools to be used successfully to coerce adversaries—while also identifying the challenges to effectively doing so. To that end, he has his students play the role of the US president and design a coercive campaign against Iran using cyber tools. “The activity encourages them to consider different potential decisions policymakers have to make and some of the tradeoffs of each choice,” said Schwartz, who has students complete the exercise independently before trying to come to a consensus on the decision points in a small group. 

To bring key concepts, such as great power competition, into the classroom, faculty members often get creative. For example, students in CMIST lecturer Bill Marcellino’s course on social media, technology, and conflict, participated in a table top exercise (TTX) this spring, in which teams took on the roles of a social media platform content moderation team, a US senator’s office, a Chinese Strategic Support Force (SSF) cell conducting an influence operation, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). For the final assessment, students design a serious, pedagogical game such as a TTX or board game that addresses policy issues. 

Similarly, to help students understand how technological innovation influences policy, assistant professor Justin Canfil has his class on the geopolitics of innovation participate in an online computer simulation, in which they adopt technology policies designed to expedite their assigned country’s production of advanced technologies. Students take on particular roles (i.e., as cabinet officials) and advocate for policies based on their specific portfolio, although they can also choose to spy on other countries and attempt to thwart their objectives. When the game concludes, the class discovers which countries came out ahead. “Succeeding in the game requires intuition built throughout the course on how technological innovation works and exactly what parts policymakers can control, and playing the simulation together allows students to see how all the different variables we study unfold in practice,” said Canfil. 

By participating in debates and simulations, students not only practice applying what they have learned in the course to scenarios outside the classroom, but they also have the chance to gain a valuable new perspective on important political processes and institutions. For example, Eli Half, who is majoring in international relations and political science with an additional major in statistics and data science, found assistant teaching professor Connor Phillips’ course on the US Congress helpful to better understanding how Capitol Hill operates. “I appreciated the new insights I gained and the great conversations and debates we had about what goes on in Congress, including a confirmation simulation where we all got to play a different senator," Half shared. 

Faculty members report that hands-on activities offer an unparalleled opportunity to help students apply what they learn in the classroom to world events and to think through their positions in ongoing policy debates. For the last few years, Daniel Silverman, assistant professor at CMIST, has conducted a simulated emergency regional summit addressing a fictitious crisis in the Middle East. Held over two sessions at the end of the semester, students have the opportunity to draw on both their research skills and their creative energies. In Silverman’s experience, the simulation has helped students deepen their understanding of the motivations of individual actors as well as gain a greater appreciation for the complexity of the policy-making process. 

To illustrate how the thinking about cyber warfare and escalation is evolving, CMIST visiting professor Mieke Eoyang asked students to choose their positions along an axis of how strongly they believed in the idea that "cyber war is coming" vs. "cyber war will not happen." As the class progressed, students at the two ends argued their positions and the undecided students in the middle shifted towards either end based on how compelling they found the arguments. The activity complemented the readings, which covered the ongoing debate among experts, and helped more students engage in the discussion.  “Hearing classmates argue different sides of complex cyber issues, especially those with backgrounds and frameworks different from mine, pushed me to see the full scope of these problems,” said Michael Della Valla, who said that he learned a lot from the in-class debate. “Through group discussions, debates, and guest speakers, we were able to connect the course material to real-world applications and better understand how offensive cyber is used in practice,” added Samy Pemmasani, who also found particularly valuable the class debates on topics such as whether AI will benefit defenders more than attackers and whether companies should be held liable for failing to prevent cyberattacks using their technology. 

Simulations also give students a glimpse into the professional world they will enter after they finish their academic journeys. In a new course on legal education and the legal profession, CMIST lecturer Ashley London regularly took her students on field trips where they could meet and talk to legal professionals—from the defense to the prosecution, to the federal judiciary. She also introduced the class to the basics of how a lawyer negotiates on behalf of clients by hosting Pittsburgh Jones Day Partner John Goetz, who conducted a special negotiation simulation between a software developer and a tech company. The students broke into groups and engaged in a one-on-one negotiation and were instructed to produce an agreement by the end of class. However, not every group reached an agreement, which itself became an opportunity "to talk and share how we agreed, why we did not, and what lawyers do about that in real life," said London. 

From classic texts like “The Leviathan” to the emerging frontiers of cyber warfare, students in CMIST learn the foundations of political science and international relations while also exploring complex questions related to law, policy, and technology. In addition to course readings, projects, and faculty expertise, CMIST students benefit from simulations, debates, and tabletop exercises designed to help them think systematically about international and domestic politics. Over the course of the semester, students have multiple opportunities to connect what they learn in CMIST classes with contemporary issues in the United States and around the world—building the expertise and skills that will enable them to contribute to vital political debates and shape the policies of the future.