Natesh looked out at his audience. Several of the military men had looks of skepticism on their faces. They saw a young Indian man trying to teach them about military strategy. That was fine with Natesh. Let them think what they want. He clenched his jaw a few times and focused on Lena, standing in the back of the room. She gave him a thumbs-up. She really was a nice coach.

Natesh’ voice grew stronger. “What can China do better than the United States? And when you think about this, I want you all to keep thinking about the stated objectives that our spy uncovered. We went over them last night. Objective One: Capture and Permanently Occupy the United States. What are the implications of this? How does that limit China’s tactical choices?”

Brooke said, “If China wants long-term control over US territory then they would likely want to do minimal damage. You don’t want to dent up a car before you steal it. That means they’d use non-nuclear tactics to preserve infrastructure.”

David raised his hand, “If they want to be in the US long-term, that also means that they have got to plan to win hearts and minds. Kind of like what we tried to do in Iraq.”

Natesh pointed at them both. “Exactly. Now you’re thinking about this the right way. What advantages does China have that they could leverage?”

People started to shout out ideas. The energy of a high-participation classroom took hold. In a strange way, people were into this. He let the group conversation keep going for a while. He wanted everyone to get comfortable contributing and talking openly. There was a good discussion of several different ways China could capitalize on their size and resources.

After about 20 minutes, Natesh looked at his watch and said, “Okay. We’re doing great. Let’s recap. We talked about Chinese advantages: Size, first-mover advantage, surprise, industrial capacity, and quantity of certain assets. We discussed how the US is more technologically advanced with most weapons. I heard someone mention that this could be an interesting route to explore as an opportunity for China instead of a weakness. In the business world, this is a valuable way to unlock competitive advantage. If we really can turn a perceived strength into a weakness, that should be a major part of our focus. Let’s flag that one and come back to it. Okay, so pulling these first few ideas all together: How does China execute a surprise attack that allows them to maximize first-mover advantage, take out America’s technological advantage, and leverage the numerical advantage of their troops? Secondly, how does China keep hold of the United States territory long-term without destroying needed infrastructure or creating a resistance movement? Does everyone agree that these were a few of our initial killer questions?”

People gave cordial yet uneasy nods. It was hard to feel patriotic about planning your nation’s invasion.

“Okay, let’s take a five-minute break.”

The group got up and scattered to bathrooms and stocked refrigerators. Natesh got a plastic bottled water and went back to the podium. Bill and David were there waiting for him.