Crisis simulations

The Garfield Center for Public Leadership brings retired members of the U.S. armed services, the Department of State, and other government agencies to campus to lead the Garfield Student Scholars through a crisis simulation exercise. The objective of the simulation is to introduce the students to the thought processes and considerations of policy makers, and the constraints they face, when dealing with major policy and treaty decisions. Recent crisis simulation topics have included the war in Ukraine, tensions between China and Taiwan, and the development of Iran’s nuclear program.

Crisis Simulation Mentors

James H. Cox is a 1971 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. He served in the Army for 31 years, retiring as a Colonel in 2002. In the Army, he taught Russian at West Point, and later served in Berlin, Moscow and Poland. After his Army service, he joined the State Department as the U.S. Conventional Arms Control Delegate to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, stationed in Vienna, Austria, where he served for two years. He is married and has two grown daughters. He is an avid cyclist who has three times ridden his bike across the U.S. He has also cycled throughout Europe, Namibia, Morocco and New Zealand, and enjoys riding through Amish farm country near his home in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Don Wurzel was a career Navy officer. After retiring from the Navy, he started a Strategic Analysis Program at a small Defense contractor in the DC metro area, eventually running war games for the Joint Staff, Intelligence Community, and Office of Naval Research. He has been running the crisis simulations at the Garfield Center since its inception in 2008.