Early this year, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan finalized a pivotal agreement on long-contested borders—but that doesn’t mean negotiations are over.
Indeed, now the work begins to settle trade, power generation, and shared water rights to make sure this is truly the end of deadly border violence.
This describes both recent world events and the scenario student participants navigated at the annual International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise (ISCNE), held on campus at the Middlebury Institute over a weekend in March.
“The energy and commitment to the exercise felt like you were seeing actual stakes,” said LTC Zach Brainard, this year’s Army War College fellow at the Middlebury Institute. “The caliber of people having the conversations was the same.”
Students from across policy and language programs participated in the two-day exercise, designed and conducted by the Army War College. The newly designed scenario focused on Central Asia. Sharad Joshi, associate professor of nonproliferation and terrorism, helped organize the exercise and served as a delegation mentor.
“Student discussions have been very rich,” Joshi said early on the second day of negotiations. “You have to strike the right balance and that can be a difficult task.”
More than three dozen students from the Institute, Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), and Defense Language Institute (DLI) participated in the exercise. They were divided into groups representing seven Central Asian nations: China, Russia, India, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
The exercise commenced on Friday afternoon with a lecture by Dr. Robert Rogowsky, professor of international trade, on how to conduct negotiations, followed by a demonstration of the basics of simultaneous and consecutive interpretation led by students in the Institute’s translation and interpretation program.
An in-depth packet of confidential documents briefed students on the dynamics of their nation—everything from their non-negotiable “red lines” to navigating China’s Wolf Warrior Diplomacy when discussing hot-button topics like water rights, uranium disposal, arms deals, and cybersecurity.
International policy and development student Marissa Gonzalez participated in the Chinese delegation in hopes of getting new perspective on humanitarian development.
“What ISCNE really showed me is what makes development work so difficult. All of these other things get tossed in,” Gonzalez said. “You have to try and remember all of the factors that go into tackling goals.”
The weekend was divided between team discussion sessions and negotiation meetings with one or more nations. Each country team had a head of delegation and a communicator who scheduled and organized meetings.
Discussion sessions prompted minutes of open-ended questions, tossed between delegation members: “What do we need?” “Why are we telling them this?” “Should we burn this bridge?” Topographical maps of the Fergana Valley and whiteboard notes like “nuclear only provided if borders are safe” displayed the wide-ranging topics covered. Students joked about Googling the recent successful negotiations happening in real time to get some valuable advice.
Then students shifted into negotiation mode with their fellow nations, adopting a formal, professional, and respectful communication style of trading phrases like “we’re aligned on that” and “a commitment to pursue an opportunity.” Negotiation meetings usually ended with the promise of more meetings, but at least one agreement was signed by the end of the weekend.
What ISCNE really showed me is what makes development work so difficult. You have to try and remember all of the factors that go into tackling goals.
Halfway through the second day, students had absorbed a lot of information—and lessons.
Anvar Nizamov, an international policy and development student, said ISCNE tested his teamwork and goal-setting skills and challenged him to extract key points from abstract concepts.
As a native of Kazakhstan, Nizamov appreciated how the exercise revealed “how little I know about my [Central Asian] neighbors and how the Western public views Central Asia.”
Jingyuan Yin and Julia Liu are both from China and were chosen to serve on the Chinese delegation.
“My background is in law and economics. This provides me a good opportunity to get involved in international relations,” said Yin, an international trade student. “In reality, negotiations will be more difficult, so it’s nice to see this first step.”
Liu worked as Yin’s translator during the exercise, which provided a unique opportunity to practice short conversations, versus the long speeches she has been interpreting in class.
“I can get direct feedback from the participants that is so valuable,” said Liu, a conference interpretation student who translated from Chinese to English during negotiation meetings. Students also interpreted into Russian.
“The language component is something that makes us different from other institutions participating in ISCNE,” said Joshi. “Having to navigate interpretation makes it even more of a real-world experience.”
A team of advisors and mentors led students through the exercise, including Ed “Cliffy” Zukowski, the long-standing ISCNE program director.
“This builds so many valuable skills employers are looking for,” said Elizabeth Bone, career advisor for the nonproliferation and terrorism program. “That includes public speaking, but also working in a team, time management, thinking quickly on your feet, intercultural communication, active listening, and learning not to get distracted.”
During her career in the Navy, Bone had to learn a new skill set for each position. On her first day at the Pentagon, she was tasked with being the point for airborne imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles and told she would need to brief leadership the next day.
“That’s the real world,” said Bone. “Employers are looking for the ability to take a large amount of information and zone in on what is important. You won’t always be the expert on what your employer asks, and you may need to get up to speed very quickly.”
She was impressed how students in the China delegation she mentored quickly ramped up and implemented feedback and tips.
Other delegation mentors included Dr. Craig Whiteside, professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, and Michael Davis, Middlebury Institute’s first Army War College fellow (2014–15), and NPS faculty and colonel, U.S. Army (retired).
“Our diverse set of faculty mentors do so much more than provide advice to delegations,” Joshi said. “They share their research and insights and career experiences.”
Delegation mentors from Middlebury Institute also included Professor Netta Avineri, the intercultural competence committee chair, and Jean Du Preez and Margarita Kalinina-Pohl from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Professor Robert Rogowsky served as the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for the exercise. Toni Thomas, associate dean for academic operations, served as project manager for the event.
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