Leila-1: Game Parameters

Introduction

We have attempted to simulate a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security in a Universal Bulletin Board- "thread" environment at www.bharat-rakshak.com.

The details of the parameters set by the game design team are presented in this document.

Major Features of Game Play

To enable a somewhat realistic simulation of this committee, we have introduced several rules and features that attempt to create and hierarchy among the players. Such a pecking order is common in government.

·         Primacy of the Prime Minister

* Only the Prime Minister can commence and conclude formal deliberations

* Only the Prime Minister can assign tasks to and define the roles of the CCS-members and other players while the game is in progress

* Only the Prime Minister has the authority to issue an executive order to the National Security Advisor and the Chief of Defense Staff.

·         The warrant of precedence will be followed after the initial set up of the game.

* The Warrant of Precedence stands thus:

Prime Minister (PM), Raksha Mantri (Defense Minister), Home Minister (MHA), Min. Ext Affairs (MEA), National Security Advisor (NSA), Chief of Defense Staff (CDS).

* Among members of the CCS, precedence will dictate which member addresses questions to whom

* Once a question is asked to someone with lower precedence, that person gets to jump the queue and answer *only* the question that was asked and then we revert back to the original precedence

* The Prime Minister can, on an ad hoc basis, facilitate a relaxation of this strict adherence to precedence

·         Only CCS members can speak without invitation. NSA and CDS will merely respond to specific queries. They can however interject in the form of assisting information and clarification.

·         NSA and CDS will be the sole administrators of government policy, but not its makers. All policy decisions will be arrived at and defined by the PM. If the PM should miss any policy nuances, the NSA and CDS will be obliged to highlight them. The NSA and CDS can assume delegation of policy-making authority only on explicit authorization by the PM.

Logistics of posting

To enable to game to finish in a reasonable period of time, we have created a rough timetable to manage the logistics of the posts.

·         Each member of the CCS will plan on making two "defining" posts, one after the first briefing by the NSA and one at the end when the PM asks for inputs to his speech.

·         Each member of the CCS will also plan on being invited by the PM to make two "clarifying" posts.

·         The PM can post without any limitations.

·         Players may use bullet points liberally and grammar and language rules may be set aside. Players may want to develop individual frameworks for analysis prior to the game, each focusing on their ministry/ area of responsibility. Players shall plan on being assumed to be intimately familiar with their organizational imperatives prior to the commencement of the first briefing.

·         The NSA and CDS will plan to be ready to make as many posts as invited to make by the CCS.

·         There will be a short 5 min break around the middle i.e. ~ 45 min into the start of the game.

·         The game moderator will be the Master of Ceremonies and all requests for procedural clarifications shall be directed to him. The moderator can post without any limitations.

Game Rules

At the start of the game two separate threads were opened on the Bharat-Rakshak Forum website. The first one was titled “Leila-1 Grand Strategy Wargame (Participants Only)” and for the other forum members there was another one titled “Leila-1 Wargame Reactions (Non-Participants only)”

• Participants cannot communicate with each other for approximately one hour after receiving the briefings.
• Participants cannot upload the  “Leila-1 Wargame Reactions” thread, nor can they communicate with any of the non-participants during the game. 
•  Non-participants cannot post on the “Leila-1 Wargame (Participants Only)” thread.

To the best of everyone’s knowledge, these rules were adhered to.

The Participants

As the briefings submitted to the scenario participants were quite detailed, the participants had to be specially chosen. Luckily on the Bharat-Rakshak Forum, there are number of `old-hands’ who have fairly deep readings in various areas of Indian security studies. We choose our participants depending on their area of interest. 

• Prime Minister and Temporary MHA (PM/MHA) - J. E. Menon

• Raksha Mantri (RM/MOD) - L. N. Subramanian

• Min. Ext. Affairs (MEA) - Laxman Bahroo

• National Security Advisor (NSA) - D. Ramana

• Chief Defense Staff (CDS) - Y. I. Patel

The Game Design and Moderation Team

The game design team came together somewhat serendipitously. The members are listed below.

• Anaath Das

• Anoop Chengara

• G. Mohan Ram

• Sunil Sainis (Game Moderator) 

Timing issues

A major problem faced was in scheduling the game. The participants were scattered across the globe and finding a time window suitable to all was quite complicated. After much consultation we choose a two and half hour window beginning at 2000 Hrs Pacific Coast Time, on December 29^th 2002 as the time for our game.

Scheduling difficulties led to the players for the post of Finance Minister and Minister Home Affairs dropping out, the scenario was modified to deal with this situation. 

A plan to have a "foreign observer group" to simulate the international community and to generate reactions was also dropped as the game complexity escalated. 

The details of the crisis may be found in the scenario depicted on the following page.