Welcome to I-GMAP's 2023 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise. The Exercise is
a multiplayer event simulating an international response to an emerging major atrocity
threat. The simulation offers students the opportunity to experience the challenges
facing international actors as they struggle, in real time, to interpret and assess
a cascade of information, and adjust and adapt their policies in response. It is designed
to give a realistic glimpse into the way that international actors - diplomats, political
leadership, and influential civil society actors - structure their decision-making
processes under the pressure of time and the unpredictable nature of unfolding events.
The Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise consists of a highly realistic, hypothetical
scenario. Student players are divided randomly into teams, each of which represents
one prominent international actor, such as the United States, the European Union,
Russia, the United Nations, or an international Non-Governmental Organization. Over
several rounds of play, each team receives new injects of information in a range of
different formats: breaking news stories, intercepted diplomatic cables and emails,
official statements from foreign ministries, consular officials and UN offices, and
more. In real time, each round challenges teams to assess and adjust their range of
preferred policy options, and to engage via formal and informal diplomatic channels
with one another.
Between rounds of play, teams convene for a group discussion. At each of these plenary
rounds, one team briefly presents its current policy posture, interests and goals
to the group, and answers their peers' questions.
Each team is assigned an Expert Advisor, a deeply experienced veteran of international
conflict resolution and atrocity prevention, who is on hand to offer advice, suggestions,
and insights from their own diplomatic, civil service, academic, and/or NGO-based
career.
The 2023 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise is set in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In
this near-future event, a range of international actors contend with a legacy of war
and genocide, a history of intensely violent identity-based conflict, and a fragile,
complex post-conflict political arrangement that risks collapsing under the pressure
of resurgent nationalism.
The 2023 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise is open to interested students,
without cost. However, the following are the requirements for participation:
To participate, you must REGISTER for the event. To register, please click or on the Registration link below to fill out a very brief registration form, and
look out for an email from I-GMAP confirming your registration.
Since the Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise is a team event, with each round
building on the previous rounds, it is essential that you commit to the full exercise,
including the Orientation Round on the evening of Saturday March 4, and Rounds 1-4
and the Concluding Discussion on Sunday, March 5. Do not register unless you are prepared
to participate fully in the complete course of the exercise.
You must provide your own laptop computer
You must read a background packet with basic historical and political information
on Bosnia-Herzegovina, which you will receive as an email attachment approximately
one week before the event.
Dr. Jared O. Bell is a post-conflict development expert with extensive experience in designing and
managing international human rights, democratization, and rule of law and justice
sector programs. He recently joined the ranks of USAID鈥檚 Foreign Service. Prior to
joining the Foreign Service, he managed ABA ROLI's Central Asia Portfolio, implementing
USG funded programs across four countries. Before that, Jared worked in Sarajevo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina in USAID's Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina鈥檚 Program and
Democracy Offices. He has also worked on various human rights, peacebuilding, and
development projects with a variety of organizations such as Peace Direct,the United
Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the American
Red Cross, and the Maryland Office of Refugees and Asylees. Jared has also taught,
presented, and lectured across the globe in such places as Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Latvia, Poland, The Gambia, and the United States.
A prolific writer, Jared has published numerous articles on human rights, transitional
justice, reconciliation and peace building, and is the author of the book 鈥淔rozen
Justice: Lessons from Bosnia Herzegovina's Failed Transitional Justice Strategy鈥 published
with Vernon Press in 2018. He holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree from Duquesne University in
International Relations, a Master of Science Degree from the University of Baltimore
in Negotiation and Conflict Management, and a PhD from Nova Southeastern University
in Conflict Analysis and Resolution with a focus in International Peace and Conflict.
In addition to his formal education, Jared has also studied and received professional
training at the University of Leiden鈥檚 Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies鈥
Summer School for Human Rights and Transitional Justice,the Montreal Institute for
Genocide and Human Rights studies, the European Inter-University Centre for Human
Rights and Democratization鈥檚 Venice Academy of Human Rights, the Universities of Groningen
and Rijeka鈥檚 Cres Summer on 鈥淭ransitional Justice and the Politics of Memory鈥, and
Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. He is a recognized UNESCO Policy Lab Expert
and has served as a Visiting Non-Resident Fellow at Western University's Center for
Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction.
Valerie FowlerValerie Crites Fowler served as a Foreign Service Officer for nearly 30 years, retiring in 2018 with the
rank of Minister Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service. Her last assignment was
as Consul General in Sydney, Australia, from 2016-2018. From 2012-15, she served in
the Bureau of Public Affairs as Deputy Assistant Secretary, Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary, and Acting Assistant Secretary of State. Prior to her arrival in Sydney
in September 2016, Valerie served as Senior Advisor to the Director General of the
Foreign Service.
From 2009-12, Ms. Fowler served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in
Colombo, overseeing U.S. bilateral relations with Sri Lanka and Maldives. In 2008-09,
Ms. Fowler served as Director of the Provincial Reconstruction Team and Sub-National
Governance Office at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, leading the U.S. civilian presence
across the country. From 1989 to 2008, Ms. Fowler served in a number of positions
specializing in public diplomacy and public affairs, including overseas assignments
in Singapore, Pretoria, Thessaloniki, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Her assignments
in Washington include three years in the State Department Operations Center, including
as Director of Crisis Management Support from 2002-04.
She is a graduate of Stanford University and a distinguished graduate of the National
War College. Her awards include the U.S. Department of the Army Superior Civilian
Service Award (2009) and multiple State Department Superior Honor awards.
After retirement, Valerie and her husband, retired U.S. Navy Captain Chip Fowler,
established a vineyard in the Columbia River Gorge in Washington State, with 16 acres
of organically-grown wine grapes.
Jeff SizemoreJeffrey Sizemore serves in the Office of Security and Human Rights, leading and coordinating his bureau鈥檚
atrocity prevention efforts. He manages atrocity prevention training for the Department
as well as works with interagency colleagues as part of the Atrocity Prevention Task
Force. Additionally, he manages the Fragility and Gender portfolios. Prior to joining
the State Department, Jeff served for over 20 years in the United States Navy as a
Surface Warfare Officer, retiring as a commander in 2020.
Jeff received a bachelor鈥檚 degree in American Studies from the George Washington University
in 2001 and a master鈥檚 degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the
Naval War College in 2012.
Tanya DomiTanya Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia
University鈥檚 School of International and Public Affairs and is an affiliate faculty
member of the where she has taught in the Balkan Studies program since 2008.
Prior to her faculty appointment at Columbia, Domi worked as a Congressional aide
and military policy advisor to the late Congressman Frank McCloskey, a leading champion
for US intervention in the Bosnian war. She also worked internationally for more than
a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political
and media development, human rights, gender and sexual identity issues and human trafficking.
Domi was seconded by the U.S. State Department to the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
in 1996 where she served as counsel to former Ambassador Robert Barry. She has since
expanded her research to genocide, conflict related sexual violence and the prevention
of atrocity crimes.
Toby Vogel
Toby Vogel writes about international affairs from Brussels and is a co-founder and senior associate
of the Democratization Policy Council (DPC), a think tank in Berlin that critically
follows Western policies toward democratizing countries. He has published widely on
the Balkans and on European Union policies and politics, with recent bylines in Foreign
Affairs, EUobserver, and Balkan Insight. He is also a regular non-fiction reviewer
for the Times Literary Supplement.
Vogel served as penholder of the UN鈥檚 2019 Common Country Analysis on Bosnia and Herzegovina
and contributed Conflict and Development Analyses in 2019 and 2022. As an independent
policy analyst he has worked with UNDP, UNICEF, UNODC, the EU, and the Swiss government,
as well as with the International Rescue Committee, where he was a staff member in
New York and Sarajevo in 1998-2002.
He holds degrees in philosophy (from the University of Zurich) and political science
(from the New School for Social Research), and was an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
research fellow on security and humanitarian action at City University of New York.
