Preparing leaders for real‑world geopolitical crises
Immersive, strategic crisis simulations that equip board and C-suite leaders to make better decisions when geopolitical shocks hit.
Decision-makers face a world of cascading geopolitical shocks: trade wars, infrastructure attacks, humanitarian crises, natural disasters and hybrid threats. Yet most leadership teams have never rehearsed how to respond.
Our solution
KairoSim delivers bespoke, immersive crisis exercises built on a decade of closed-door events at the University of Cambridge. Designed by a former British diplomat and a leading academic, these simulations put your leadership team inside a hyper-real national level crisis response centre. Complete with live intelligence injects, AI-generated media, and expert role-players with decades of personal experience of government, military, and security responses, KairoSim helps your team discovers its strategic strengths and blind spots before a real crisis does.
KairoSim was born from the Strategic Simulation Programme at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics where historian and international relations expert Professor Brendan Simms and former British diplomat Adam Wurr have run closed-door crisis exercises for over ten years. Participants have included politicians, military commanders, intelligence professionals and ambassadors, amongst them the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lord David Trimble, (previously First Minister of Northern Ireland) and many former and serving UK Cabinet Ministers from across the political spectrum. Their direct input has made this the most realistic strategic simulation practice in the UK.
Our format is modelled on the UK government’s own national crisis response mechanisms, giving participants unparalleled insight into how governments respond in real time to crises that affect their operations. We are building on a track record of strategic foresight: Our simulations have anticipated the sovereignty dispute over Greenland (2020), the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure to attack (2019), the Northern Ireland border crisis post-Brexit (2018) and the Ukraine energy price shock (2021) just before they all became global headlines.
Having established the model at Cambridge, building partnerships with government departments and international organisations along the way, KairoSim now brings its tested approach to the private sector, consistent with a mission to help strengthen all elements of society and economy against future global shocks.
How it works
KairoSim delivers immersive, facilitator-led geopolitical crisis exercises that replicate the conditions of a real emergency. Every simulation is co-designed with the client to target the specific risks, sectors, and decision-making dynamics most relevant to their organisation.
Simulations follow a five-stage process:
- Discovery & scenario design: We work with your team to develop a near-future crisis scenario calibrated to your operations and matched with expert role players.
- Immersive simulation: Participants step into a situation room, receiving live intelligence injects, AI-generated breaking news, real-time dis/information feeds, and competing priorities.
- Expert briefings and statecraft masterclass: Senior role players and subject matter experts share real-life lessons from geopolitical crisis management and outcomes.
- Cross-functional team working: Leadership teams collaborate across functions under time pressure, with incomplete information and shifting priorities.
- Facilitated debrief & actionable insights: a rigorous post-exercise analysis maps individual and collective performance to concrete resilience and preparedness in your organisation.
What you gain
- Strengthened decision making under pressure.
- Exposure of organisational blind spots.
- Improved institutional coordination and resilience.
- Greater understanding of sector specific and complex risks.
- Leadership confidence in high stakes environments.
