In 2021-22, Motive International was subcontracted by a large business prime contract holder to design and build an Atrocity Prevention (AP) tabletop exercise (TTX) for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (State/DRL). Delivered to State/DRL in September 2022, the TTX Motive developed today serves as the primary mechanism to fulfill the State Department’s Congressional mandate to train U.S. officials in AP as per the Eli Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018. Through immersive learning that measurably translates to real-world AP impacts, this project demonstrates Motive’s mastery harnessing the power of TTXs to advance our mission to mitigate conflict and bolster global stability.

Thematic Expertise Coupled with Innovative Design

Motive was chosen for this project based on our dual expertise in AP and TTX design. Our in-house AP expert, Dr. Karna Cohen, who has conducted hundreds of interviews with first-hand victims, witnesses, and genocidaires involved in mass atrocities in Rwanda and elsewhere, served as Motive’s thematic advisor on the project. Going above and beyond the contract’s scope by conducting a literature review of more than 200 source documents and interviews with nearly 100 international stakeholders, Dr. Cohen produced a TTX companion resource, Reference Book for Atrocity Prevention Policymakers and Practitioners. This product was subsequently adopted by State/DRL as their seminal written resource on the topic.

Leveraging Dr. Cohen’s expertise and this body of knowledge, Motive designed a TTX that reflected the latest AP insights from academia, trends within the AP policy community, and AP best practices within government and civil society. Motive’s CEO, Morgan Keay, a former State Department official who contributed to U.S. policies on AP and specializes in participatory training and programming, led the design of the scenario based game. Featuring originally produced videos, audio recordings, maps, and hundreds of documents, the fictional-but-realistic scenario was described as “stunningly believable” by State Department officials.

By immersing participants in the full complexity of an atrocity crisis, the game compels players to apply specific skills, knowledge, and procedural savvy to reduce the “massiveness” of unfolding violence. Automated scoring systems designed by Motive’s TTX producer and Director of Operations, Melissa Vanderburg, reward participants for formulating AP response options that reflect current best practices or that demonstrate effective coordination across agency and sector lines. Branches in the scenario that lead to different levels of violence or protection of civilians based on player “moves” provide real-time feedback to reinforce learning. This model allows participants to test AP interventions such as sanctions, military interventions, or projects to address known atrocity risk factors, while experiencing the outcomes of various options in real-time. In this way, gameplay not only facilitates individual learning but reinforces AP capabilities participants are explicitly asked to translate into institutional practices back in their real organizations.

Measuring Results Beyond Learning to Global Impact

Designed to be effective, repeatable, and data-driven, the game cultivates, exercises, evaluates, and measures mastery of relevant, real-world AP capabilities against standardized criteria allowing State/DRL to facilitate numerous iterations of the TTX over several years to hundreds or thousands of global participants.

To measure the impacts this effort has on real-world atrocity mitigation, Motive designed a custom monitoring & evaluation (M&E) framework complete with data collection and analysis instruments as part of the full TTX package. State/DRL is using this toolkit, which leverages data automation and mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, to track indicators such as increases in AP-relevant knowledge and skills at the individual and cohort levels, the extent to which participants and their organizations apply capabilities cultivated during the TTX to real-world AP situations, and the empirical linkage between these indicators and mass atrocity reduction around the world.

Experience the Game

While State/DRL is now the custodian of the game and its associated materials, Motive can provide interactive demonstrations upon request for interested stakeholders to experience the game first-hand. Please contact info@motiveinternational.com to learn more