Fletcher's student team was the only quarterfinalist among civilian institutions
The United States Army War College hosted its fifth Annual Strategy Competition in late April in Carlisle, Penn. The competition brought together teams from over 20 institutions to compete in an intensive, three-day exercise developing comprehensive counterterrorism strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Participants had to imagine and anticipate the motives and goals of different nations as well as different factions of those nations—balancing political and military objectives alongside the interests of regional partners, and forecasting how terrorist groups might act.
Hamed Al Ghaithi, F26, Naoya Itatsu, F26, Deborah Jeong, F26, Siddhartha Warwade, F27, Talia Wilcox, F27, and Sophia Wittemyer, F27, represented The Fletcher School at this year’s competition, devising whole-of-government solutions to address the announced theme. They were the only team from a civilian institution to reach the quarterfinals.
Inspiration for a Career in Strategy
The topic of the competition was creating a strategy to counter terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although my area of interest and research is Russia and Eurasia, I was able to apply my knowledge to this new topic and enhance my understanding of geopolitics.
After taking Strategy and Grand Strategy with Professor Linnington this semester, I’d been interested in the idea of a career in strategy. The competition reinforced for me that I want to be a strategist. This experience showed me how the skills I learn in the classroom are applied to real-world scenarios. I feel inspired to pursue a career in strategy and planning, and I loved bonding with the team and our military fellow coaches.
– Talia Wilcox, F27
A Comprehensive Counterterrorism Strategy
We spent three intensive days building a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa—a region I had not focused on academically or professionally. Truly breaking down the prompt and carefully defining the problem was where the real work began, translating what we learned in the Fletcher classroom into something tangible. We worked through tradeoffs, sequencing decisions, and whole-of-government tensions that don't resolve neatly in a seminar room. The space we were given to think rigorously and carefully about the prompt was deeply rewarding—challenging our assumptions and bringing together the respective strengths and skills of the team.
– Deborah Jeong, F27
Embracing New Perspectives
As a civilian official from Japan Ministry of Defense, this experience was valuable for two reasons. First, it pushed me to genuinely inhabit the perspective of the U.S.—Japan's only ally. My thinking naturally defaults to a Japanese frame of reference, so having to develop and defend a U.S. strategy was a rare and clarifying exercise. Second, it showed me how I can contribute meaningfully in high-stakes group settings, which I will encounter throughout my career. Our team embodied the diversity of the Fletcher community—six people with entirely different professional backgrounds, strengths, and areas of expertise
– Naoya Itatsu, F26
The Essence of Fletcher
The process of thinking in terms of structures and agents, tradeoffs and opportunity costs, and balancing a military strategy with a whole of government approach—and to sequence interventions across time horizons when everything felt urgent—was a task in itself.
Thinking deeply with my exceptionally competent teammates was the takeaway experience for me. The friction of different worlds colliding—development practice meeting security studies, and building state capacity meeting emerging technology policy—was the true essence of what Fletcher is all about. Taking the lead position among all the participating academic institutes was the cherry on top of an already perfect cake.
– Siddhartha Warwade, F27
Read more about experiential learning at Fletcher.