Editor’s note: This story uses a first-person point-of-view at certain points to help tell the story and create an immersive experience for the reader.
Over the course of several high-stakes hours Saturday, IU students navigated diplomatic minefields, military escalations and intelligence breakdowns, all within the walls of the Indiana Memorial Union.
They were part of the seventh O’Neill National Security Crisis Simulation, organized by the Alexander Hamilton Society and John Karaagac, senior lecturer and director at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The faculty-coordinated, student-directed event is intended to help students apply their technical skills in a high-pressure environment.
When I arrived at 9:30 a.m., students were already darting between rooms with name placards hanging from their necks, identifying their roles as presidents, ambassadors, secretaries and intelligence officers from countries across the world.
Karaagac quickly introduced me to the “President of the United States,” junior Macey Montgomery, and the “U.S. National Security Adviser,” sophomore Simon Cian. They were positioned at the head of a long table in the IMU’s Distinguished Alumni Room. That would be the American headquarters.
After brief introductions, students dispersed into their separate alliances. In the “UN room,” UN members, representatives of European Union states and NATO allies met together. In a second room, the “revisionists,” powers including Russia, China, Pakistan and Iran convened.
While state representatives had to ask permission before traveling between rooms or meeting with their foreign counterparts, I was granted diplomatic immunity as a reporter.
In the American room, the U.S. delegation was hit by the first crisis.
“0753 GMT: A Bullet, Bit,” the top of the page read.
The confidential memo informed officials that a routine Indian military exercise ended in tragedy. Twenty-three Pakistani civilians had died, with substantial damage to residences and civil infrastructure across the Pakistani border.
U.S. Signals Intelligence indicated that GPS jamming was involved, but the jamming’s perpetrator remained unknown. Indian social media amplified claims of a Pakistani false flag, meaning they attempted to make it appear that the crime was carried out by another actor.
Simultaneously, reports surfaced of a terrorist attack on the Maji dam in southern Tibet, which supplied 48% of the world’s population with water. The terrorists threatened to seize the dam if China did not release the region for their control.
The U.S. immediately split into its governmental agencies to assess the crises.
As tension mounted in the U.S. headquarters, a U.S. ambassador discreetly slipped out. In a shadowy hallway exchange, the ambassador assured the President of Pakistan, law student James Romano, that the U.S. condemned the situation and were investigating origins of the weapon.
But not all was well at home. Representatives ran between groups, speaking loudly and sometimes talking over one another. Adding to the chaos, a congress member learned they could leave the room and did so without informing the president. The senate majority leader was unsure of the congress member’s whereabouts.
“Do you understand this is a crisis?” The national security adviser snapped at the Senate majority leader, sophomore Joshua Burt. “We are trying to analyze everything, and Congress just leaves the room in the middle of trying to make a decision.”
The president’s frustration was equally apparent.
Elsewhere, diplomatic chess continued. In contrast to the American headquarters, the revisionist room had a calm, even cheerful atmosphere.
“India has asked permission to enter the room,” a courier informed the group. “Agree or deny?”
“Deny!” Everyone sitting around the small conference table said in unison.
One president leaned back in his chair while the Russian delegation cracked jokes.
Then the second crisis struck.
The U.S. headquarters meets at the O'Neill National Security Crisis Simulation on April 5, 2025, at the Indiana Memorial Union. The event was intended to help students apply their technical skills in a high-pressure environment.
U.S. social networks were claiming Bolingbroke, an owner of Department of Defense contracted companies, had been fraudulently reporting their assets for years to continue garnering competitive contracts. While U.S. defense-industrial markets plummeted, separatist attacks in Tibet escalated to killing Chinese officials.
Almost immediately, the Hungarian president, Jonathan Weisbach, entered the revisionist room, calling for Hungary, Sweden, China and Pakistan to lead an investigation into the Tibetan dam crisis.
“New contingent,” the Russian president, IU senior Darby Fitzsimmons, said to the group. “Russia has to join.”
Back in the U.S. room, Congress responded to the Bolingbroke crisis.
“With regard to Bolingbroke,” the Speaker of the House, junior Hamza Sahli, said, “They have approached the speaker of the house requesting a bailout to the corporation, as it is an absolute investment interest and was completely blown up.”
“Not without accountability,” the national security adviser interjected. The House speaker's tone shifted.
“I find this just disgusting that you would make this about politics and accountability right now,” he said. “When the national defense, when the NSA loses access to these satellites, we’re going to have a serious situation on our hands!”
“We have a serious situation as it is!” the national security adviser retorted.
After a tense exchange, the group agreed to discuss arresting Bolingbroke executives. The national security adviser declared that he wanted the FBI to raid Bolingbroke offices, gain control of their systems and ensure that American national security information is protected.
The turmoil did not go unnoticed by America’s allies. Concerned by the intelligence breach and internal dysfunction, the UN group took action.
“We in Europe would like to announce that we are creating a new intelligence network that can work independently of the United States,” the German Chancellor AJ Porter declared before all parties.
The chancellor also noted ongoing efforts to bring Turkey into the European Union. Meanwhile, the Asian powers announced an “Asian NATO,” excluding the United States.
Notes that were sent around via couriers at the O'Neill National Security Crisis Simulation are pictured April 5, 2025, at the Indiana Memorial Union. Students role-played as security leaders of several countries, dealing with global chaos and diplomacy.
As new crises emerged, prominent heads of agencies frantically continued to meet in whispered hallway conversations. Officials exchanged confidential messages on scribbled notecards via couriers. In the U.S. room, Henry Lancer, the CEO of military contractor Cavalier, affiliated with Bolingbroke, faced interrogation by FBI agents over the alleged intelligence leak. Though he remained uncooperative.
At the same time, NATO countries entered the U.S. room.
“The NATO countries called for the resignation of the Secretary of Defense of the United States for severe and several lapses in security measures,” the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Max Arterberry announced. “And we call for an investigation into his knowledge about Bolingbroke. We would like the United States to not bail out the company.”
“NATO,” the national security adviser interrupted. “You are invited to leave the room.”
He had more pressing concerns: new intelligence confirmed China’s role in the GPS jamming that triggered the initial India-Pakistan crisis.
In an effort to regain credibility and leverage NATO support, the U.S. began the lengthy process of impeaching their secretary of defense, graduate student John Mikucki.
In the last 10 minutes of the simulation, the U.S. rushed to finalize its proposed policies. Though it came down to the wire, the U.S. ended by making seven proposals, including blowing up compromised satellites, pledging $200 billion to support China’s efforts at the dam and launching a carrier strike group into the Persian Gulf to stabilize the region after an Israeli bombing of an Iranian nuclear facility.
As the U.S. focused on damage control, the revisionist powers and NATO allies struck a controversial deal with Russia. Russia agreed to withdraw from Ukraine up to the 2021 borders in exchange for annexing the entirety of eastern Belarus and the city of Minsk.
Some final policies may have been a stretch, as an adjudicator pointed out. But the educational value of the experience was clear.
“A lot of these students are interested in foreign policy,” Spencer Walsh, an IU senior and creator of the simulation, said. “It is a very different thing to have classroom experience and technical understanding, than to be thrust into a situation where there are a lot of uncertainties.”
The simulation did not end in world peace, but perhaps there is hope for next semester.
