This is the final piece of our two-part series on the development, planning and execution of CENEX 2011 – the Josef Korbel School of International Studies’ annual diplo-military simulation.

The simulation, which took place on May 7, 2011, was well organized and instructional. The planning team expected there to be a few glitches during the execution of the exercise, simply because it was the first time a exercise of this scope was hosted at the Josef Korbel School.

The entire exercise, involving the actions and counteractions of each team and Control, can be viewed on the CENEX 2011 Day of Play website. Each team acted as the planning team expected, that is - within their national interests and the historical and operational limits of each state’s diplomatic, military and governance capabilities. Control was able to act on state decisions quickly and to use Injects (the interjection of small pieces of information designed to inform the situation) to add movement to or slow down each state’s trajectory in the crisis. Interestingly, the crisis moved from one in the Taiwan Strait to one focused on the Korean Peninsula – which mimics where a real-life scenario might move if one were to occur with the same set of dynamics as the once imaged in CENEX 2011.

Simulations are often times very difficult to sustain after 2.5 hours of play. However, our participants, were able to persevere for over five hours, which is a major accomplishment. At the end of the simulation, the participants were able to provide and receive data on what they learned, where the exercise performed well, where it was lacking and gathered feedback directly from their respective Control team members. This session, termed a “Hotwash,” is extremely valuable in defining how well a simulation functioned. The general consensus from all participants, including Control, was that CENEX 2011 was a major success and had greatly enriched everyone’s understanding of how states handle diplomatic and military crises.

The 2012 CENEX planning team has already been created and has met with Josef Korbel School Dean, Christopher Hill, who was a big supporter of CENEX 2011 and will be involved in the planning for CENEX 2012. The founders of CENEX, including myself, are graduating this summer and we all have great confidence in the incoming team’s ability to take CENEX to the next level and provide an amazing experience to next year’s participants as well.

Shane Hensinger, MA in International Security
Josef Korbel School of International Studies