Activity Nine

This activity is to accompany Unit Three of the Curriculum Guide.

Incorporating the C.E.L.s:

• Independent Learning
• Critical & Creative Thinking
• Personal & Social Values & Skills

Concept Application Lesson for:

• Policy Options
• Strategic Interests
• Consequences
• Confrontation
• Blockade

This activity allows students to assume the role of national decision makers who have the responsibility for resolving the Berlin Blockade. The simulation permits students to gain insight into influences upon national decision making, the importance of determining consequences of decisions, the atomic factor, and the resources available to deal with the specific crisis.

Knowledge Objectives

The student will:

• know that each nation will determine its policy options in light of its own national interests;
• know that in determining the actions of their nation, the leadership must make assumptions concerning the reactions of other nations; and,
• know that domestic opinion and concerns play a significant role in determining foreign policies of governments.

Skills Development

The student will:

• learn to synthesize parts into a meaningful whole, integrate them, and create a new product, rule or theory;
• practise describing cause-effect relationships:
• practise making hypotheses based on reasonable assumptions and inferences; and,
• practise using concept maps/analytical grids to organize information for analysis.

Values Issues

The student will:

• discuss the criteria a nation should use when determining when to use the military option in an international dispute;
• discuss whether domestic or external considerations have more influence on policy makers who are determining foreign policy options;
• discuss whether the presence of nuclear capabilities enhance or impede conflict resolution between major powers; and,
• discuss the military and geographic factors that were present in 1949 with particular reference to Berlin.

Outline of the Activity

Step One

Have student groups represent the following nations: Soviet Union, Britain, United States, western-controlled Germany, and Soviet-controlled Germany.

The groups task will be to:

• identify the political and military goals of their nation;
• identify the options open to their nation;
• identify the resources available to their nation;
• identify the short-term and long-term consequences of each of the options; and,
• select the preferred option for their nation.

In determining their nation's policy regarding this particular crisis, the groups could construct either analytical grids or concept maps to illustrate how relationships between data can be seen and interpreted. The grids/maps should indicate the objectives of the nation, policy options and possible consequences.

Step Two

The groups will meet in a conference setting with the goal of peacefully resolving the issue of Berlin and ending the Blockade.

The groups will present their preferred options to the Conference.

• The Conference will hold two or three sessions.
• Time will be made available between the sessions for the representatives to meet with each other to create new proposals or solutions.

Compare the results of the conference to the actual events surrounding the Berlin Blockade.