ODU students learn about diplomacy

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - ODU's Virginia Modeling Analysis and Simulation Center in Suffolk, known as VMASC, is a think tank for international studies.

"The goal of this organization is to develop technological tools and methodologies that help decision making," said Dr. Regina Karp, director of the International Studies Program at ODU. "The world's a very complex place."

Playing the role of foreign diplomats sitting on the NATO council, graduate students find themselves right in the middle of an international crisis.

"The government of Norway would like to say, we have an attack on the pipeline now. Now NATO assets and assets that are crucial to NATO have been attacked..."

Although the attack is only a simulation, the students must work together to resolve the crisis, which in scenarios involves everything from an attack on the oil supply in the Middle East to a threat in the Mediterranean where terrorists are using a weapon of mass destruction. And it all plays out in real-time.

"We're showing them different ways of looking at information," said Dick Bedford, branch head of Strategic Engagement So we can show them maps, we can show them historical information that analysts have worked on, we can show them breaking information from intelligence sources."

"Shows how complex it is to get a decision whether it be, for example in our exercise to try and get Russia out of the Caucus or maybe even from a domestic policy when trying to get healthcare passed," said Tim Gorde, an international studies student. "The intensity of this rebel is problematic..."

Adding to the realism of the exercise is the participation of foreign students.

"Many of them are actually Fulbright Scholars," said Karp. "They come from all over the world and so you have a rather dynamic setting to begin with."

Today's students, tomorrow's diplomats.