Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Operations Policy Tabletop Exercise

The Handa Center and Stanford Law School's policy lab program are pleased to offer select students the opportunity to participate in a tabletop exercise on mass atrocity prevention and response operations (MAPRO) on Friday, Feb. 13. The exercise is being offered as part of a policy lab on Legal & Policy Tools for the Prevention of Atrocities being offered at Stanford Law School. Using the conflict in Syria as a framework, the exercise will be led by Handa Center Senior Fellow and Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School Beth Van Schaack and Col. (Ret.) Dwight Raymond, a peace operations specialist at the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute at the U.S. Army War College and primary contributor to the U.S. Department of Defense MAPRO doctrine. Copies of the MAPRO Handbook will be distributed to all participants.

During this five-hour simulation, participants will work within an interagency framework to formulate U.S. government policy options to mitigate mass atrocities in Syria, drawing on the range of tools available to policymakers, including sanctions, accountability mechanisms, humanitarian assistance, strategic messaging, and armed force. The general schedule will be as follows:

9:00 - 9:30 am Introduction/TTX Overview
9:30 - 10:30 am Policy Advisory Memorandum
10:30 - 10:45 am Break
10:45 - 11:45 am Policy Statement
11:45 am - 12:00 pm Options Orientation
12:00 - 1:00 pm Working Lunch (Small Groups)
1:00 - 1:40 pm Small Group Presentations
1:40 - 2:00 pm Wrap-up and Debrief

Beth Van Schaack is a Senior Fellow affiliated with the Handa Center and the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School. She just stepped down as Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice of the U.S. Department of State. Prior to her State Department appointment, she was Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law, where she taught and wrote in the areas of human rights, transitional justice, international criminal law, public international law, international humanitarian law, and civil procedure. Van Schaack continues to advise a number of human rights organizations, including: the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the National Institute of Military Justice, the International Justice Resource Center, the Syrian Commission on Justice & Accountability, and Accountability Council. Van Schaack is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School. 

Dwight Raymond is a peace operations specialist at the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute at the U.S. Army War College, where he also teaches a course on Humanitarian Intervention. A retired infantry colonel, his military awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge, and Airborne, Ranger, and Pathfinder qualification badges. He is one of the primary authors of the Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) Military Planning Handbook, the Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Options (MAPRO) Policy Planning Handbook, the Protection of Civilians Military Reference Guide, and military doctrinal publications regarding stability and peace operations.