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Pre-Game Activities

How does the president make foreign policy decisions?

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Making decisions

Talked to friends and family

Made a list of pros and cons

Asked for advice from experts like teachers, coaches, or counselors

Why did you choose this method?

Have you ever had to make a really important or difficult decision? What did you do to help decide?

Think of examples of decisions that people make that impact others. You may want to provide some examples of situations (family, sports team, school leaders, friend groups) and then have students come up with their own. Follow up by asking the question: What about when a decision just feels too big to make on your own? How do you figure out who to ask for advice?
Define “experts” as experienced adults.
ELs/MLs: Have students look at the visuals and the text. Define “decision” if needed (a choice that you make about something after thinking about it) and provide sentence starters.
Have students use Think-Pair-Share to respond to the questions on the slides. Students think about what they know about the topic. Then they are paired with another student. They share their thoughts with a partner or the class.

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Presidential Decision-Making

What kinds of decisions does a president need to make?

Domestic Policy:

plans & actions that impact and occur within the U.S.

Foreign Policy:

government actions related to or dealing with other nations

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Asking the Experts

Who might be the most helpful experts or resources when the president has to make decisions around foreign policy?

Military leaders, economic experts, security officials… and more.

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Who can you call? The NSC!

The National Security Council is a group of experts in their field that aid the president in matters of global importance. They help guide and execute foreign policy.

As part of the Executive Branch, the council advises the president on issues related to international conflict and events.

Explain that they will learn a little more about the tools the president and the NSC can use before they get to take on the role of the president in the game, Convene the Council.
Share these NSC factoids with students:
Formed in 1947 under President Truman after WWII
Regular attendees: Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Representative of the U.S. to the United Nations, the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Chief of Staff to the President, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the military advisor to the Council, and the Director of National Intelligence is the intelligence advisor.
Counsel to the President and the Legal Advisor to the NSC are invited to attend every NSC meeting.
The heads of other executive departments and agencies, as well as other senior officials are invited to attend meetings of the NSC when appropriate to address the cross-cutting nature of many critical national security issues, such as homeland security, global public health, international economics, climate, science and technology, cybersecurity, migration, and others.

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Foreign Policy Tools

Mini Lesson

What tools and actions can the president and the NSC use when making foreign policy decisions?

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Foreign Policy Tools

Diplomatic

Economic

Domestic

Unconventional

Military

No Action

Once policy (plan of action) is considered, tools can be selected and actions can be delegated.

Delegated?!?

To delegate means to assign or hand off to someone else to do. In this case, the president assigns, or delegates, policy decisions to other areas of the executive branch.

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Foreign Policy Tools

Diplomatic

Economic

Domestic

Unconventional

Military

No Action

Sometimes the best option in a foreign policy situation is to take no action at all!

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Foreign Policy Tools

Diplomatic

Domestic

Unconventional

Military

No Action

Economic Tools

Most often used by the Department of the Treasury and sometimes through the work of the State or Justice Departments

Sanctions
Trade deals
Foreign aid

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Foreign Policy Tools

Diplomatic

Economic

Unconventional

Military

No Action

Domestic Tools

May be used by a variety of departments, including Homeland Security and Justice.

Investigation
Legal action
Refugee admissions
Economic regulations

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Foreign Policy Tools

Diplomatic

Economic

Domestic

Military

No Action

Unconventional Tools

Used under the guidance of the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, may be used in secret.

Cyberwarfare
Espionage (spying)
Training foreign militaries and intelligence services

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Foreign Policy Tools

Diplomatic

Economic

Domestic

Unconventional

No Action

Military Tools

Used under the guidance of the Department of Defense

Air strikes
Ground invasions
Troop patrols
Joint military exercises

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Who and what?

Read the situations. Then drag the type of tool the president will need (domestic, military, economic, etc.) and the department that handles it (State Department, Department of Defense, etc.). Use the Department Guide PDF for descriptions.

	Tool	Dept.
1. An immigration policy allowed people from Venezuela to remain and work in the U.S. due to the humanitarian crisis there.
2. Iraq invaded Kuwait. After other actions failed to address the situation, the U.S. led a coalition of 35 nations to remove the occupying Iraqi forces in Kuwait.
3. The U.S. entered with 195 other nations into an international treaty on climate change called the Paris Agreement.
4. The military of Myanmar seized power from the democratically elected government. The U.S. responded with economic sanctions targeted at those who played a leading role in the overthrow of the civilian government.
5. A computer worm was discovered to be the cause behind significant damage to Iran’s nuclear program. The worm is believed to be a cyber weapon built by the U.S. and Israel.

Treasury

Homeland Security

Defense

State

Intelligence Community

Military

Diplomatic

Domestic

Unconventional

Economic

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Balancing Priorities

Each foreign policy decision is made after considering its impacts on many priorities. Match the U.S. priorities used in Convene the Council to the best description on the right.

Being successful or thriving financially, growing wealth

security

Safety; freedom from danger, risk, etc.

world

Beliefs that are core to a democratic government

values

prosperity

State of global events and well-being

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Are you ready to step inside the Situation room and make decisions as President?

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Foreign Policy

Post-Game Activities

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Request	Department of…
1. Ban travel between the US and Moldova.
2. Use federal law to seize the patent from Better Lab.
3. Set tariffs on goods from Nambutu in response.
4. Share technology that limits emissions and helps with adapting to the new climate.
5. Pull out all remaining US troops from Mypos.
6. Oppose ransom payments and give emergency medical and technical support.
7. Closely monitor the terrorist.

Decide which department should handle the situation by dragging it.

Delegation time

Energy

Defense

Intelligence Community

Justice

Treasury

State

Homeland Security

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True or false?

Drag the check mark under T if the statement is True and F if it is false.

	T	F
1. The president is on his or her own to make foreign policy decisions.
2. Members of the National Security Council are all Senators.
3. There are many different foreign policy tools that the president can use to address global events.
4. Not responding to a global event is sometimes the best option.

✓

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Discussion questions

1. What was the easiest part about making a decision in the game? The hardest?

3. What role did the metrics play in your decision making?

4. How did you use the information you received from the National Security Council?

2. How did you decide which policy to choose?

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Let’s check out the news!

What is facing the president today? Research issues involving foreign policy in the US in the news. Write a brief summary to share with the class. Be sure to answer the 5 W + H questions.

Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?

Have students go online and find a news article involving foreign policy.
ELs/MLs: Choose three news stories related to foreign policy that are topical and that your students would find interesting and have them use one of those instead of searching the web.
This activity can be done individually or in pairs or small groups. Before beginning, come up with a list of search terms as a class.
Have students be prepared to talk about their articles in groups in the next slide.
ALTERNATIVE: Have students choose a different country (not the US) and answer the questions about that country. Have students share their summaries with the class.
ELs/MLs: Instead of writing their summaries, they could illustrate them in a cartoon strip, create an audio recording, or share with a partner instead of a formal essay.

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Talk about it!

Work in groups of three to discuss one of the news stories from the previous activity. Ask each other the following questions:

What was the situation?
What foreign policy tool did they use?
Who was involved?
If you were the president, would you make the same decision? Why or why not?

This activity builds upon the previous one (Let’s check out the news!). Have students quickly review their articles and choose one to talk about in their group. Alternatively, they can search for a new article to discuss.
ELs/MLs: strategically group your students. Options include: type of foreign policy tool, countries, linguistic ability, home language, etc. Also, there is a chart in the EL/ML extension page of the PDF that you can provide to your students as an organizer for this activity.
EXTENSION: Have students create a newscast based on the article. This could be done in pairs (with the newscaster and either a Field Reporter or the President). It can be a report or an interview with someone explaining the situation. They can use any quotes that appear in the article in their newscasts. Have students record their newscasts (either audio or video).

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Mini-Quiz

Test Your Knowledge

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1) Which department or agency would oversee the treaty making process?

State Department

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2) Which department or agency oversees economic sanctions?

Department of the Treasury

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3) Who might be able to provide helpful insights on issues relating to the U.S. military bases around the world?

Secretary of Defense

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4) Who or what ends up making the final decision on foreign policy?

A. National Security Advisor

B. A vote of the National Security Council

C. A national vote

D. The president

✓

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5) What is considered when debating various foreign policy options?

A. Cost

B. Time

C. Popularity of the policy

D. Likelihood of success

E. All of the above

✓

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6) Which word best describes this action: to assign or hand off a task for someone else to complete?

A. Sanction

B. Delegate

C. Convene

D. Debate

✓

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7) An official agreement between two or more nations is called a…

A. Treaty

B. Diplomat

C. Aid organization

D. Policy

✓

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8) Economic tools are only used to punish other nations or groups.

A. True

B. False

✓

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9) The United States is required to respond to every global crisis or opportunity.

A. True

B. False

✓

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10) Events that happen in other parts of the world can have impacts on people living in the United States.

A. True

B. False

✓