Pacific Trident III:  The Strengths and Weaknesses of the U.S. Alliance System Under Gray Zone Operations

This paper looks at how tabletop exercises (TTX) are used to train participants on crisis management.  The TTX, Pacific Trident III,” was created and run by Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA (Sasakawa USA), a think tank based in Washington D.C.

Excerpt:
The tabletop exercise utilized two different crises at the same time, challenging the United States and allied players as to which was the ‘real’ crisis, and which merited prioritization. Also, both crises involved gray zone tactics (operations other than war) to achieve their objectives. In many ways, the fact that there were two gray zone operations at the same time showed the alliance system’s strengths and exposed some of its weaknesses.