European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Assesses Post cold War strategies who a the a enemy now by William Cockerham Hartford courant inside a locked door at the . Naval War College in Newport r.i., marked Quot top secret Quot scores of men and women in uniforms and civilian clothes hover Over Banks of brightly coloured computers playing military games in a make believe world on the Brink of disaster. As orders Fly Back and Forth Over radio telephones _ Small images representing the terrible machines and weapons of War a missiles surface ships planes and submarines Are moved about on the screens stalking the enemy. Near the end Young men in Crisp White uniforms hurry about gathering computer printouts for Deposit in plastic baskets labelled Quot classified  shadows of others Scurry across a huge map of the world on a far Wall As a voice on a Loudspeaker warns that the games Are coming to a close. A sign on an opposite Wall says Quot Loose  sink ships even in War  but for the first time since the 1950s, the adversary Iri these War games played for More than 100 years at this military War College on Narragansett Bay is not the soviet Union. V after a year of International changes that ended the cold War including the reunification of Germany and a growing Friendship Between the worlds two superpowers the naval War College has scrambled to change its curriculum. Rear adm. Joseph pc. Strasser president of the naval War College founded in 1684. Said that 90 percent of the school s curriculum was changed last summer for this years class of senior officers. Although the school focuses on naval strategy and operations its student warriors with the rank of major and above Are from the army air Force and marines. A Mai amp awful lot of what we did around Here was geared to the soviet threat and How the Navy would operate in a potential global War a said Strasser a Mast straight 50-year-old military career officer with a doctoral degree in philosophy of political science. Quot the cow War is Over now and an extraordinary amount of the curriculum had to be changed to reflect , Strasser and his staff said that much of the curriculum _ changes  current unlikelihood of a full scale nuclear War Between the superpowers. This year the College is focusing More on conventional wars outside the european continent. Other new courses Deal with the military a role in fighting the drug War and combating terrorism. A a. In the history of the College the Only comparable periods of sweeping curriculum change occurred in the Early part of this Century with the Advent of military aircraft and in the Early 1950s with the emergence of two superpowers whose atomic weapons gave them the capacity to destroy the world. Quot Navy capt. Raymond Alcorn a recent graduate of the school who is now Dean of students said that he was shocked at the sudden changes in the world last year a particularly the destruction of the Berlin Wail. Quot Quot when i went through the course last year it was frustrating Quot said the lean intense Veteran aviator who was a prisoner of War in Hanoi for almost eight years during the Vietnam conflict. Quot we were talking about things in class that no longer even existed.1 War games at the College take up Only a Small part of the curriculum comprising strategy National Security it in games Isth  placed political economic and. S  bridal questions. Decision making and operations. But they play a major  m the school s Mission. In Many respects they Are like the final exam. Strasser said that in last summer s version of the global War game top War planners from the three military services and a Host of Federal agencies including the Cia department of defense and . Space command were confronted with three new world scenarios. Students do not participate in the three week summer War game although they do play games of their own. Quot we called these three worlds the Good a the bad and a the ugly Quot said Strasser who assumed command of the War College last Spring. The Quot ugly Quot world had a soviet Union breaking apart with International relations dominated by new boiling ideological alliances. Moslem nations rallied to make trouble in the Middle East old hatreds threatened to change the face of Eastern Europe and China reverted to hard line authoritarianism. Violence erupted in the third world nation because of hunger and despair and a wave of terrorism was spawned by latin american drug cartels.  the "good&Quot.world, economics and Trade dominated International politics while the Quot bad Quot world broke apart with violent winds of nationalism As traditional peacekeeping forces such As nato and the United nations lost their authority. _ Quot the lessons we Learned were incorporated into the curriculum As Well As Senj to Washington Quot said Strasser stressing that the Pentagon has always considered the War games important. Strasser said that War in the Middle East was identified As a crisis in Alt three worlds Quot but it would be inaccurate to say we predicted the iraqi invasion of Kuwait. It was just a possibility that was discussed Quot Navy capt. John h. Heldt director of the school s War gaming department said that the end of the cold War does not make the games any less important. Quot the world is even More dangerous now Hauhe major balance of Power is gone. A new world order has emerged and each nation now has very competing  he said. Heldt said that the major change in the War games is that More emphasis is being placed on political economic and historical questions. And of course he Quot said military budget cuts. Although operation desert shield in saudi Arabia comes up often in class discussions Heidt said that it is not an integral part of the curriculum. Quot we Are not involved in teaching current events Quot he said v -7 7 7 77. 7 7 Quot a 7,/ 7 / begun in 1887, the naval War College games Are. Considered the most sophisticated within the military a three major War colleges which include the . Army War College in Carlisle a and the . Air University in Montgomery aia. The curriculum at those schools also have changed As a result of recent events. A Quot we have the finest gaming facility in the world primarily because we have the tradition Quot said Robert Wood Dean of the Center for naval warfare studies. The Newport school is the oldest continuing institution of its kind in the world and has taught Many of the men and women who became the highest ranking officers in . Naval history. Wood and others Point proudly to a letter on display written by the late adm. Chester w. Nimitz. Commander in chief of the Pacific forces in world War ii and a 1923 naval War College graduate. Treads in part a the War with Japan had been re enacted in the game rooms at the naval War College by so Many people and in so Many ways that nothing that happened during the War was a surprise.,. Absolutely nothing except the a Kamikaze tactics towards the end of the War we had not visualized these.�?T. A a monday december 3, 199q the stars and stripes aaa Pago 13