Ministry of External Affairs (India)
Biological Weapons Convention
50 Years of the BWC: Strengthening Biosecurity for the Global South
Design and delivery of an immersive, discussion-based crisis exercise focused on biological weapons preparedness and response.
Organisers
- Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
- Attended by policymakers, scientists, diplomats, and biosecurity experts from 80+ countries
Developed to bring together policymakers, bio-security experts, public health practitioners, and regional stakeholders, the exercise simulated a rapidly evolving biological incident requiring coordinated decision-making under conditions of uncertainty.
Delivered across five interconnected exercise rooms, participants were challenged to assess emerging information, manage communication risks, and coordinate responses to a fictional cross-border public health crisis linked to a synthetic biology research facility. The exercise was designed to encourage collaboration, stimulate strategic discussion around biological threat preparedness, and demonstrate the value of realistic, immersive training approaches in strengthening policy and response capabilities.
Delivered across five interconnected exercise rooms, participants were challenged to assess emerging information, manage communication risks, and coordinate responses to a fictional cross-border public health crisis linked to a synthetic biology research facility. The exercise was designed to encourage collaboration, stimulate strategic discussion around biological threat preparedness, and demonstrate the value of realistic, immersive training approaches in strengthening policy and response capabilities.
“Running this immersive, discussion-based exercise with Conducttr created a strong sense of realism and urgency throughout. Participants were actively engaged, organising themselves in ways that closely mirrored real-world crisis response, and bringing valuable expertise into each room’s discussions. Feedback was extremely positive, with many noting they hadn’t realised how quickly and easily a biological incident could escalate. We were also pleased to receive recognition from representatives at WHO, who commended the quality and delivery of the exercise”
Anjeli Kaur, Solutions Consultant
Anjeli Kaur, Solutions Consultant
Scenario
The exercise was built around a rapidly evolving cross-border public health incident linked to a synthetic biology research facility near the Beauria–Terranova border. As cases of acute illness emerged among nearby populations, uncertainty quickly grew around the source and nature of the outbreak. Early veterinary signals emerged alongside human cases, the kind of animal-human interface warning that precedes real zoonotic events like Nipah or H5N; forcing participants to assess whether they were dealing with an environmental incident, an infectious outbreak, or something deliberate. Participants had to interpret incomplete information, manage misinformation, coordinate across jurisdictions, and prepare a final national assessment for the Prime Minister's Office.
Exercise
Participants took part in the exercise as themselves, bringing their own professional expertise and perspectives to the response. The attendees were split into five rooms, each room receiving the same core injects and scenario information. Within each room, participants naturally organised themselves into working groups, mirroring how coordination would emerge in a real crisis setting.
The exercise was delivered across several structured phases, with each phase progressively escalating the intricacies, uncertainty, and pace of the scenario. New information and injects were introduced throughout, requiring participants to continuously reassess risk, prioritise actions, and adapt their responses as the situation evolved.
The exercise was delivered across several structured phases, with each phase progressively escalating the intricacies, uncertainty, and pace of the scenario. New information and injects were introduced throughout, requiring participants to continuously reassess risk, prioritise actions, and adapt their responses as the situation evolved.
Environment
Each room was set up to support facilitated group discussion, with laptops pre-logged in to ensure a smooth start and uninterrupted flow.
Each room had one participant who acted as dedicated scribe, capturing group decisions and inputs into the system on behalf of the wider team, while the rest of the group focused on discussion, analysis, and response.
Each room had one participant who acted as dedicated scribe, capturing group decisions and inputs into the system on behalf of the wider team, while the rest of the group focused on discussion, analysis, and response.
Challenges and Solutions
Designing a biological crisis exercise for diplomats and scientists from 80+ countries demanded careful handling of geopolitical sensitivity. Many participating nations have limited national biosurveillance infrastructure, fragmented coordination between health, agriculture, and environment ministries, and significantly less capacity than the countries offering bilateral assistance in the scenario. Every fictional nation, institution, and actor had to feel credible without mapping too closely onto real political relationships, live treaty tensions, or existing capacity asymmetries.
Adelphi, Terranova, and Beauria were built as a coherent regional environment with plausible borders, bilateral history, and institutional dynamics, allowing participants to engage with genuine policy dilemmas without the friction of real-world allegiances. The deliberate introduction of a synthetic biology angle, a non-state actor claim, and cross-border contamination gave the scenario the legal and diplomatic sophistication the BWC context demanded, while keeping the focus on decision-making rather than geopolitics.
Adelphi, Terranova, and Beauria were built as a coherent regional environment with plausible borders, bilateral history, and institutional dynamics, allowing participants to engage with genuine policy dilemmas without the friction of real-world allegiances. The deliberate introduction of a synthetic biology angle, a non-state actor claim, and cross-border contamination gave the scenario the legal and diplomatic sophistication the BWC context demanded, while keeping the focus on decision-making rather than geopolitics.
Workshop Dynamics
The audience spanned over scientists, diplomats, lawyers, public health officials, and security teams; all with different instincts about what mattered most. The challenge was designing something that felt relevant and urgent to all of them without flattening into a lowest-common-denominator exercise. Role-specific injects, simulated media, seeded misinformation, and live facilitator control meant every team experienced the same escalating pressure through the channels they'd actually use in a real incident. They had to read weak signals, call out false information, and make decisions as the situation got harder. The reporting tools captured everything for the debrief.
With an ExCon of 2 people, we were able to facilitate the exercise and use the live review features in real time, with one person controlling the pacing of the exercise and another reviewing the decisions made in real time and analysing these to debrief following the exercise. We also stationed exercise moderators in each room who were briefed on the content to expect, serving two purposes - answering any questions the training audience had, but also being our eyes in the room to analyse physical responses, coordination and dynamics of each group.
With an ExCon of 2 people, we were able to facilitate the exercise and use the live review features in real time, with one person controlling the pacing of the exercise and another reviewing the decisions made in real time and analysing these to debrief following the exercise. We also stationed exercise moderators in each room who were briefed on the content to expect, serving two purposes - answering any questions the training audience had, but also being our eyes in the room to analyse physical responses, coordination and dynamics of each group.
Strategic Results
The clearest signal from the exercise was what participants said at the end: they wanted to do it again. More practice. That matters. We even had some teams refuse to leave exercise rooms on time because they wanted to continue discussing their approach and decisions, even after the exercise ended!
For national security teams, crisis coordination cells, and the officials who have to make real calls under real pressure, crisis exercising is an imperative. It is how you find out whether your coordination actually works before it has to. This exercise showed that a mixed-expertise group, given the right scenario and the right environment, will self-organise, challenge each other, and build judgement together.
For national security teams, crisis coordination cells, and the officials who have to make real calls under real pressure, crisis exercising is an imperative. It is how you find out whether your coordination actually works before it has to. This exercise showed that a mixed-expertise group, given the right scenario and the right environment, will self-organise, challenge each other, and build judgement together.