Welcome to the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention's first atrocity simulation exercise!
We are delighted to welcome you to Binghamton University and the University Downtown Center for two days of simulated international response to an emerging atrocity threat. The simulation will provide both a practical atrocity prevention learning experience and serve as a laboratory for decision-making and conflict analysis.
You will be divided into five groups, with each group acting as a different international actor in the simulated conflict.
Over the course of six rounds of the simulation exercise, you will be:
- assessing information in real time through life-like materials;
- articulating a series of multidisciplinary policies and programs aimed at trying to nudge the country away from conflict and;
- dealing with the immediate and longer-term aftermath of the conflict.
Each round of play is one hour long, and will meet in assigned classrooms (see below). Between each round of play, all participants meet together in UDC 120 A/B for a shared assessment.
Because this is a team-based exercise, and because each round builds directly on the rounds that precede it, it is essential that you commit to the full six rounds of play, on both Saturday April 27 and Sunday April 28! The simulation's success depends on each team's continuity with its full complement of players.
Each team will have two advisors present for all rounds. The advisors are not there to provide you with directions or to nudge you toward the "right" decisions in each round. Advisors will be working with groups as they digest new information, revise their risk assessments and conflict mapping, revisit their policy options and preferences, and decide whether to share information with other teams.
Each classroom is provided with: large-scale maps to assist you in your work, whiteboard and markers, and beverages and snacks. However, each player must provide his or her own laptop to receive the fresh injects of new information for each round of play.
Teams/Classrooms
Teams |
Classrooms |
United States |
UDC 121 |
Brazil/International Organizations/UN |
UDC 224 |
Canada/United Kingdom |
UDC 222 |
Non-governmental Organizations |
UDC 228 |
France/European Union |
UDC 122 |
Schedule
Saturday, April 27, 2019 |
Sunday, April 28, 2019 |
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12:30 -1:00 pm: Check-in UDC First Floor Atrium |
9 am: Breakfast available UDC 120A/B |
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1:00 - 1:30 pm: Orientation UDC 120A/B |
9:30 - 10:30 am: ROUND 3 Classrooms |
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1:35 - 2:35 pm: ROUND 1 Classrooms |
10:35 - 11:15 am: Debriefing/assessment UDC 120A/B |
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2:40 - 3:20 pm: Debriefing/assessment UDC 120A/B |
11:20a.m. - 12:20 pm: ROUND 4 Classrooms |
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3:25 - 4:25 pm: ROUND 2 Classrooms |
12:25 - 1:05 pm: Debriefing/assessment UDC 120A/B |
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4:30 - 5:10 pm: Debriefing/assessment UDC 120A/B |
1:05 - 2:05 pm: Lunch UDC 120A/B |
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5:15 pm: Remarks by James Dubik followed by discussion UDC 120A/B |
2:05 - 3:05 pm: ROUND 5 Classrooms |
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6:00 pm: Dinner UDC 120 A/B |
3:10 - 3:50 pm: Debriefing/assessment UDC 120A/B |
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3:55 - 4:55 pm: ROUND 6 Classrooms |
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5:00 - 5:40 pm: Debriefing/assessment and Closing Discussion UDC 120A/B |
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5:45 pm: Dinner UDC 120A/B |
*Dinner on Saturday, and breakfast, lunch and dinner on Sunday are included for registered participants; list dietary restrictions in the registration survey.
Location
All activities will take place in the Binghamton University Downtown Center (UDC). Consult the visit Binghamton University website for more information about arriving to Binghamton
Parking
Ample street parking exists around the UDC. Visit this page to see a map of downtown Binghamton with street parking and other sites of interest. Street parking is free on Sundays. You will need to pay to park on Saturday. Limited parking is available in the UDC Parking Lot, and we will send registered participants a code closer to the event.
Hotels
A block of rooms at a discounted rate has been reserved at the Holiday Day Inn in downtown Binghamton. When reserving rooms use the code BUI.
You may also contact DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel for rooms nearby the UDC.
People
Simulation Creator and Administrator

In addition to I-GMAP staff, the main facilitator for this event is Jim Finkel. A former member of the senior civil service, Jim Finkel served as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Center for the Prevention of Genocide's 2013-2014 Leonard and Sophie Davis Genocide Prevention Fellow after ending his 35-year federal service career in May 2012. During the final 20 years of his service, he held positions that provided him an insider's eye view of the evolution of US policy toward international accountability and the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. Finkel was a participant in President Barack Obama's Presidential Study Number Ten (PSD 10) effort and was a frequent attendee during the first year of meetings of the President's Atrocity Prevention Board. He is the co-founder of the Atrocity Prevention Study Group, a non-resident fellow at the Henry Stimson Center, a visiting scholar at George Mason's SCAR and a courtesy professor of practice at the University of Oregon. Finkel holds a master's degree in international affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor of arts from Rutgers College, Rutgers University. He is the author of two recent, structured, atrocity-based simulations for the University of Oregon and a third simulation is nearly complete.
United States
Expert Advisor: James Dubik, Senior Fellow, Institute for the Study of War

General Jim Dubik, Ph.D., retired from the U.S. Army in July 2008. He is a Senior
Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and a Professor at Georgetown University's
Security Studies Program, as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations,
the National Security Advisory Council, and the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
In 2012-2013, he was the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership sponsored
by Penn State Law, Dickinson College, and the U.S. Army War College. He is also a
member of the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame and a distinguished member of the U.S.
Army 75th Ranger Regiment.
General Dubik has extensive operational experience in Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, Korea,
Thailand, Bosnia, Haiti, Panama, Honduras, and in many NATO countries. Commissioned
as an infantry officer, General Dubik first served with the 82nd Airborne Division,
then in the First and Second Ranger Battalions, and has commanded at every level,
including Commanding General of the 25th Infantry Division and the 1st U.S. Army Corps.
He led a Brigade Combat Team composed of U.S. and Multinational Forces in Northern
Haiti during Operation Uphold Democracy in 1994 and was Deputy Commanding General
of Multinational Division North, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999. General Dubik stood up
the Army's first Stryker Brigade Combat Team, and he led experiments on future warfare
concepts and technologies for the Department of Defense.
Faculty Advisor: Robert Demgenski

Robert Demgenski is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Syracuse University. His research focuses on the conduct of war and the causes and outcomes of international and internal conflicts. His interest in political science stems from experience working with orphans of the civil war in Congo-Brazzaville and a short stint in politics with the German Free Democratic Party (FDP). He studied international affairs at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and holds an M.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University.
Canada/UK
Faculty Advisor: Max Pensky

Max Pensky is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University. His main areas of scholarly research include contemporary political theory and political philosophy and the philosophy of international law, with an emphasis on the normative foundations of current practices of transitional justice, the post-conflict legal and political demands on recovering states, and the relation between domestic and international criminal law. He also publishes regularly on critical theory, including the works of Theodor Adorno and Jürgen Habermas, and on issues in contemporary German political culture. He is the author of two books and over 50 articles and chapters. He has held fellowships at Johann-Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Cornell University, Oxford University and the University of Ulster.
Faculty Advisor: Carl Kalmick

Carl Kalmick is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Binghamton University.
Brazil/International Organization/United Nations
Expert Advisor: Jaclyn Streitfeld-Hall, Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect

Jaclyn Streitfeld-Hall is the Publications Director for the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. In this role she has editorial oversight for the R2P Monitor and all of the Global Centre's major publications. She also does research on populations at risk of mass atrocities in West Africa and Central Africa, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is a primary contributor to the Global Centre's work on Peacekeeping and Civilian Protection. Prior to joining the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, she was a Research Assistant at the Cline Center for Democracy and taught International Relations and Comparative Politics courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She received a B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and an M.A. in Political Science with a specialization in International Relations from the University of Illinois.
Faculty Advisor: David Cingranelli

David Cingranelli is Professor of Political Science at Binghamton University. He has written widely on human rights, democracy, and governance. His 2007 book with Rodwan Abouharb, Human Rights and Structural Adjustment, (Cambridge University Press) demonstrated the negative human rights impacts of World Bank and IMF program lending in developing countries. He is a former President of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. Until 2012, he served as the co-director of the Cingranelli and Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Data Project, the largest and most widely used human rights data set in the world. Presently, he and Mikhail Filippov are working in collaboration with the United States Political Instability Task Force on a successor to the CIRI project, which will be called the "Rights" data project.
France/European Union
Expert Advisor: Gerard Fontain, Acting Director, Democracy Rights and Governance Office, U.S. Agency for International Development - Haïti
Gerard Fontain is an experienced international jurist, and an expert in justice sector development and human rights in post-conflict countries. He brings over 20 years of progressive senior-level management experience in the rule of law, governance and peacebuilding sectors and has served in bilateral and multilateral development agencies. His experience includes 12 years in the development and management of USAID's Democracy and Governance (DG) projects and some experience serving in the UN. For the past 12 years Mr Fontain served as Acting Director of USAID/ Haiti DG Office, Senior Rule of Law Advisor, and Democracy and Governance Program Manager involved in the design and technical management of USAID's Rule of Law, Human Rights, Anticorruption, Governance, and Elections Programs in Fragile States such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Haiti. He possesses extensive knowledge of programmatic approaches in the Rule of Law, Human Rights and Stabilization sectors, and solid understanding of post-conflict transitions, and democratic consolidation programs. Before he joined USAID back in 2005, Mr Fontain served as Child Protection Project Manager in UNICEF / Haiti and as Program Manager for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) where he helped design and develop CRS' first civil society, human rights, and peacebuilding programs executed in Haiti.
Faculty Advisor: Nadia Rubaii

Nadia Rubaii is professor of public administration and co-director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. Her research examines the internal and external factors that contribute to the effectiveness of master's degree programs intended for public and nonprofit sector professionals, with a particular emphasis on alternative pedagogies for the most effective contextual learning and comparisons of international and domestic quality assurance systems. For many years her research has been targeted to helping universities and public service organizations better serve diverse publics, be inter-culturally effective and to promote social equity. Although Rubaii's research, teaching and professional service activities have been in all parts of the world, most of her recent work is based in Latin America. She has held Fulbright appointments in Colombia and Venezuela, and she is founding co-editor of GOBERNAR: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance. She has held leadership positions in the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), La Red Interamericana de Educación en Administración Pública (INPAE) and the International Comparative Policy Analysis Forum (ICPA-Forum).
NGO
Expert Advisor: Samantha Capicotto, Director of Policy and Planning and Program Director, Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention, Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

Sam Capicotto has been with the Auschwitz Institute since 2010 as the Program Director of the Global Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention. This is the flagship educational program of the organization, bringing 25 government officials together at the former Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau each year to undergo an intensive course on genocide prevention policy development and implementation. She has also taken on the role of the Director of Policy and Planning in 2014, assisting the Executive Director in the overall programmatic development of the organization. Ms. Capicotto graduated from St. John's University School of Law magna cum laude. She is admitted to practice law in New York State and is a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. She graduated valedictorian from her undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo, with a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Philosophy.
Faculty Advisor: Stephen Capobianco

Stephen Capobianco is the assistant director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University. He works to establish, support, and expand international and domestic partnerships in both government and non-governmental organizations for strengthening research, publications, and student field placements. He has spent the past several years working on international high-impact educational practices such as global learning and internships at Cornell University and at Binghamton University before that. In addition to his work at I-GMAP, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Community and Public Affairs. His current research focuses on cross-level analysis of higher education institutions' internationalization efforts in promoting equity and inclusion for marginalized communities, specifically the LGBTQI+ population. Stephen holds two degrees from Binghamton University, a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature and a Master of Public Administration.
Registration
[THE SIMULATION HAS REACHED CAPACITY. PLEASE EMAIL ASSISTANT DIRECTOR STEPHEN CAPOBIANCO AT scapobia@binghamton.edu TO ADD YOUR NAME TO THE WAITLIST.]
To register for the full event, complete the online registration form.
While attending the Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise is free and no registration fee is required, for planning purposes we kindly request that all participants submit their registrations using this tool.
Registered participants must partake in all scheduled activities over the course of the two days.