Students take part in mass-atrocity intervention simulation
Dozens from Binghamton University schools try to adapt response to Haiti situation
Binghamton University’s Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) held a two-day atrocity intervention simulation on April 27-28 at the University Downtown Center.
“This is a really exciting opportunity to get students to talk about how they can take the theories that they’ve been reading about and figure out what they would actually do in these situations,” said Nadia Rubaii, a co-director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. “It’s easy to say ‘the international community should respond.’ We can all see that we should do something, but what and who and how?”
More than 50 students attended the simulation, working on six teams to handle a highly realistic impending mass atrocity.
“Generally when we talk about mass atrocity it’s this notion that violence is occurring and it’s going to have catastrophic events for a population,” Rubaii explained. “We talk about mass violence that’s by people against people, but environmental factors also elevate the risk and the potential for violence.”
The simulation was developed by Jim Finkel, a former member of the senior civil service. Finkel reached out to Max Pensky, co-director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, to organize the University’s simulation.
“Jim is a very prominent, nationally known figure in atrocity prevention in the United States government, so his name is familiar to anyone in academics, or the State Department or really internationally [in terms of] how America has developed genocide and atrocity prevention as a primary policy,” Pensky said. “Jim reached out to us and said ‘I’d like to come to your conference and bring current and past state officials and talk about how those Obama-era programs are doing during the Trump administration.’”
This version of the simulation focused on a mass atrocity in Haiti, and, over the course of six rounds, teams received different forms of information. With debriefings between each round, the actors had to decide how to assess the risk of atrocity violence, how to adapt a response and whether they should share new information with other teams.
“When they graduate they’re going to be the ones who need to make these decisions,” Rubaii said. “This simulation is designed to show them how much of a struggle this can be — to have incomplete information and differing interests.”
Fernando Villagra, a senior studying political science, sociology and Latin American and Caribbean studies, participated in the simulation as part of the Canadian team.
“We’ve just been thrust into this situation in Haiti to talk about an atrocity that’s been blooming. Each group gets different information and it’s about getting good policies in place to save as many lives and prevent the atrocity,” Villagra said. “It’s been difficult because there are so many people and actors and so much information coming from everywhere, so it can be hard to focus.”
The simulation had both faculty and professional advisors on each team who could help the students develop a feasible plan. Jim Dubik, a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and retired lieutenant general, was the advisor for the American team.
“As a retired army officer I have an intergenerational education responsibility,” Dubik said. “The country paid for me and gave me those experiences so when I have the chance to pass those lessons on to a generation that will be facing similar, if not more complex problems, then I should do so.”
Working alongside their peers and professional advisors, the students who participated in the simulation had many opportunities to network.
“Lots of opportunities on campus allow them to hear speakers, but here they’re actually group members with them, side by side struggling,” Rubaii said. “We’re struggling to understand this information with them and making the practical and ethical decisions together.”
Aligning with the I-GMAP minor, the simulation was open to students from any school, and the participants ranged from sophomores to doctoral students.
“We had a quiet launch in 2016 and we began some of our earliest programs in 2017. We have an undergraduate minor and will be launching a full graduate degree program in GMAP in the fall,” Pensky said. “We have an all-University approach; the minor is the first minor that is open to every school and not housed in any college.”
Through these simulations and interactive programs, the I-GMAP team is ultimately hoping to prepare students for these complex, real-life situations.
“The goal is mobilizing the entire University but then mobilizing them to get out of their comfort zone and start making contributions,” Pensky said. “We want to create more windows and doors between the University and the world of atrocity prevention. We think that, far too often, universities don’t spend enough time reaching out to their natural partners in the non-academic world.”