The Department of Defense announced today that it welcomed operational experts from seventeen countries to the first Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) maritime interdiction game hosted by the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island September 27 through October 1.

Delegations participated in a series of intensive simulations designed to test decision-making about potential interdictions of proliferation-related shipments. The event was intended to assist in developing the operational capability of PSI participants to interdict maritime shipments of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems, and related materials.

Participants in the PSI maritime interdiction game included operational experts from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

PSI is a global initiative to enhance and expand efforts to interdict shipments of WMD, their delivery systems, and related materials to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern. More than sixty countries around the world are supportive of PSI, which was launched by President Bush on May 31, 2003.

The U.S. Naval War College has one of the premier war-gaming departments in the world. War gaming has been an integral part of the Naval War College since 1887, and the college today uses various gaming techniques to support a gaming schedule of approximately 50 games a year.