The CIF topic for the 2005-2006 school year is "Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation." Students will address the benchmarks for this topic from the following perspectives: scientific, environmental, political/geopolitical, economic, and social/cultural.

Student participants will create products for each of the three Benchmarks and make those products available on the CIF web site. These products may be in any format that can be posted to the web. For examples of the kind of work that is expected, please check the Benchmark Results for 2002-2003.

The CIF benchmarks for 2005-2006 are listed below. Click on each benchmark link to view the full set of objectives and the suggested activities. You can also obtain a PDF version by clicking on that link at the end of each benchmark description.

Benchmark One:

• The purposes of Benchmark I are to consider the motivations and the “resources” (physical and intellectual) a nation needs to pursue a nuclear weapons policy.
• The leaders of any country must first “want” to have nuclear weapons. Next, they must be able to justify that “want” to their own citizens and they must try to justify their decision to the world community.
• Finally, they then must have the necessary scientific, technological, industrial, and economic abilities to carry out the development, testing, and production of those weapons.
• Your task is to examine decisions that have been made, or that are being made, by various nations in the world today to develop nuclear weapons. You are to analyze these decisions in the context of nuclear proliferation, nonproliferation, and counter proliferation.
• In your investigations you will examine the objectives from the point of view of the scientific & environmental; social & cultural; economic; political & geopolitical domains to gain a comprehensive understanding of these topics. (Benchmark_I.PDF)

Benchmark Two:

• In Benchmark I you analyzed the motivations that would drive a nation state to want to possess nuclear weapons. You also came to an understanding of the kinds of physical and intellectual resources a nation would need in order to develop these weapons.
• In Benchmark II your task is to investigate issues of nuclear weapons in the world today. You will once again identify the world’s nuclear powers, the “wannabes,” and those countries that do not want this capability. You will also work to understand the ways in which the world community has chosen to try to control nuclear weapons. And you will identify and explain what you have already learned, the current concerns of the global community regarding the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons in various regions of the world.
• In your investigations you will examine the objectives from the point of view of the scientific & environmental; social & cultural; economic; political & geopolitical domains to gain a comprehensive understanding of these incidents and these weapons. (Benchmark_II.PDF)

Benchmark Three:

• Your final task is to use the knowledge you have gained thus far: the motivations and resources you learned about in Benchmark I and the current nuclear realities and treaties to develop visions for the future. You will try to determine the kinds of nuclear weapons proliferation/ nonproliferation events and issues that will occur in the regions of the world that you have studied.
• This task focuses on the identification and analysis of scenarios for the future.
• In your investigations you will examine the objectives from the point of view of the scientific & environmental; social & cultural; economic; political & geopolitical domains to gain a comprehensive understanding of security, prevention, and response. (Benchmark_III.PDF)

http://www.criticalissuesforum.org/bmks06.html
updated 03 November 2005