My Alliance is Falling Apart and My Enemies are After Me!:  Foreign Policy as a Talk Show   Introduction   In this activity, students will learn about the somewhat convoluted, somewhat absurd, and extremely important business of statecraft by roleplaying as either heads of nations, the Secretary General of the United Nations, or concerned citizens.  The format of the lesson presents the activity in a way students can understand it.   Lesson Plan   Allow at least a week for this activity.  Introduce the class to the topic the talk show will discuss on Monday.  Suggested topics are the Suez Canal Crisis, the Prague Spring, Nixon's trip to China, or Kissinger's negotiations with the North Vietnamese, or any other crisis during which America's alliance system seemed to be breaking down.  Give the students an outline of why the crisis occurred and its importance.   Assign students to their roles.  Choose one student to be the Secretary General, who will serve as the moderator of the show.  Assign other students (no more than five or six) to critical roles.  For example, in the Suez Crisis, the show would need an Eisenhower, a Nasser, an Eden, a Ben Gurion, and a Khruschev.  These students will serve as the "guests" on the show.  Assign the rest of the students to "countries": there will be an American delegation, an Egyptian delegation, and so on.  Citizens from each delegation cannot question their own leader, but can ask questions of the other heads of state.  You may want to assign each "citizen" a brief essay (250-500 words) over their topic to serve as the basis for their grade.   On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, allow time for research.  Divide the different "countries" up and have them answer questions relating to their role in the crisis: Why did their country have an interest in the area?  What alliances did the country have?  What outcome did their country want?  Why (or why not) did the country achieve their goal?   The Show   On Friday, begin class with the chairs set up in a conventional talk show setting, much as one might see on "Oprah" or "Jerry Springer."  Give each "guest" time to make an opening statement (perhaps two minutes) and then have the moderator open the floor for questions.  It is essential that the moderator play an active role in the discussion, pushing some "guests" to speak if the question pertains to them or their allies and silencing other guests.   Grade guests based upon the following: Depth of research; understanding of content; speaking ability; ability to control the conversation.   Grade citizens based upon the following: Depth of research and understanding exhibited by their head of state; quality of questions asked; quality of report.   Grade the moderator based upon: Quality of conversation; ability to keep discussion on track; control of conversation (no extraneous questions asked); fairness to all sides.