THE HAGUE // The world leaders gathered in The Hague were asked to explore how they would react to a nuclear attack or accident by taking part in a simulation set in a fictional country called Brinia.
It was a big departure from the formats typically adopted at major summits and some of the leaders said they were impressed at the exercise set up by their Dutch hosts.
“It was a new, helpful experience,” the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said after the exercise.
She said the exercise had tested leaders’ reactions to nuclear incidents and terrorist attacks.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said he wanted to bring an interactive element to the conference. “On the basis of scenarios, you can have discussions as to what to do in certain situations which are as real as possible,” Mr Rutte said.
“It gave new insight into some of the questions they would face if – and we hope it won’t – such a situation would arise.”
Educational gaming is increasingly popular in training programmes and uses fictional scenarios, role-playing and often elaborate computer-generated graphics to explore how people would react to situations before they arise.
The Technical University of Delft, which researches the technique, has developed “Charlie Papa”, a game for training security guards, who must roam a virtual city centre, scanning it for threats while interacting politely with members of the public.
* Reuters
