TEACHING COMPANION
The Tunnel Opens in Six Months
Who can stop the train after the deal is signed?
Commitment problems & the timing of force · 50–60 min
Learning goals
- Identify how a shift in control can weaken the incentive to honor an earlier promise.
- Compare an assurance with an enforceable rule by tracing who can stop a departure.
- Distinguish a strike against a future shift in power from a strike against a specific imminent attack.
- Update advice as intelligence changes and apply the same reasoning to a new route.
Class setup & submission
Choose For Class at the start. Enter your name and, if you wish, your class or section. Finish the responses and checks to open your report.
Choose Download Class PDF in your finished report. If needed, use Print or save as PDF. Open the PDF to check your name and responses, then upload it to Canvas.
Students type their written responses in For Class.
Course materials
Before the activity
The game includes the case, dispatches, and vocabulary. No advance reading is required.
Syllabus description
A lunar freight tunnel will cut a 12-hour trip to 48 minutes. Advise Marel before a rival gains control of the shortcut, test two gate rules, and decide what a late-night warning actually supports. Students produce a cabinet report with two gate trials, both alert decisions, and five written responses.
Discussion prompts
- When would Ordan honor the pledge even if it still controlled the gate? What evidence would you want?
- If shared approval makes a promise credible, when might it also make a routine emergency harder to handle?
- Which change to the record would make you revise your advice about 04:00?
What to assess
Grade the causal reasoning in the cabinet memos. Use the gate prediction and trial record to diagnose where a student’s explanation diverges from the model.
Limitations
The lunar case and freight figures are fictional. Use the trial to isolate control over departure, then ask what evidence a government would need about real intentions and capabilities.
Credit & permissions
Created by Yoav Duman. Free educational use, sharing and hosted embedding; software rights reserved. See the reuse information for software, artwork, branding and third-party materials.
Suggested citation
Yoav Duman, “The Tunnel Opens in Six Months: Teaching companion,” Trouble in Common, https://trouble-in-common.ishmaldon.chatgpt.site/teaching/the-tunnel-opens-in-six-months. Include your access date.
ASSESSMENT & SUBMISSION
Assess the reasoning.
Set an endpoint and tell students which report or response record to upload to your course website. Use the activity’s own grading guide when available.
A suggested 10-point rubric
Give each criterion 0 points if absent, 1 if partial and 2 if clear and supported. Adjust the weighting to fit the activity.
- Concepts / 2
- Use a relevant international relations concept accurately.
- Evidence / 2
- Support a claim with a specific record or comparison.
- Mechanism / 2
- Show how actors, rules or pressures connect to the outcome.
- Revision / 2
- Consider a rival explanation or explain what changed your mind.
- Limits / 2
- Identify what remains uncertain and what evidence would help.
Before students begin
- Choose For Class if the activity offers a mode switch. Follow the endpoint your instructor assigns.
- Keep a progress backup when the activity offers one, especially before changing devices or websites.
- Review your responses and export the report or files listed in the assignment.
- Upload your work to the course website and check for the submission confirmation.
A progress backup restores a session. The readable report shows the work you’re asking students to explain or defend.
Prepare an assignment to share.
Edit this text, then copy it into Canvas or your course website. These edits stay in this tab.
Syllabus description & discussion prompts
Syllabus description
A lunar freight tunnel will cut a 12-hour trip to 48 minutes. Advise Marel before a rival gains control of the shortcut, test two gate rules, and decide what a late-night warning actually supports. Students produce a cabinet report with two gate trials, both alert decisions, and five written responses.
Questions for a discussion board or class debrief
- When would Ordan honor the pledge even if it still controlled the gate? What evidence would you want?
- If shared approval makes a promise credible, when might it also make a routine emergency harder to handle?
- Which change to the record would make you revise your advice about 04:00?