RUN YOUR OWN TRIVIA NIGHT
Like most fields, foreign policy is all about the details. Some details, like how many warheads the New START Treaty reduced American and Russian arsenals by, are important. Other details, like how many nineteenth-century Secretaries of State sported the classic “mutton chop” sideburns look, are less critical. But regardless of what those details are, there’s no better way to test your chapter’s mastery of them than through an AHS trivia night!
Designed to be easy to manage, this trivia packet can be part of any fun and informal chapter gathering, offering opportunities for friendly competition and getting to know other chapter members. And about that friendly competition: we are happy to award free books to the winning team members (1 book per member) from your trivia night from our AHS Library. To receive the books, please send us the names and book selections of members of the winning team as well as one mailing address where we can send the books (usually, it’s the address of the chapter president who then distributes the books).
Please read the Pregame section carefully for recommended set-up, and be sure to provide the trivia night host with the attached answer key. We leave it to you to decide how many teams and how many members per team you would like to include in your trivia night, and we encourage you to make any modifications you want to the trivia packet below.
Everything you need, from the questions to the team sheets, is laid out below. If you have any questions, reach out to Connor at connor@hamsoc.org.
THE PREGAME
Step 1: Divide participants into teams of 4–5. Create a Slack/private message/group DM channel for each team a few hours before trivia.
Familiarize yourself with the questions below as well as the Answer Key.
Step 2: Right before you start asking questions, distribute blank Team Sheets to each team in their private group message (it's a Google Doc so you can make as many copies as you need).
Step 3: Get everyone on a Zoom and explain the basic rules:
Six rounds.
Teams should discuss their answers in their private message groups.
Teams will grade themselves when answers are announced every two rounds. The host will record scores in their role as Official Scorekeeper.
Step 4: Ask the questions below. As for timing, feel it out—if most teams seem like they’ve written down their answers, you can move on and ask the next question. At the end of each round, ask the group if they want any questions repeated.
Important documents: Answer Key (for your eyes only) and Team Sheets (make as many copies as you need and distribute one to each team).
QUESTIONS
Round 1 - Important Foreign Policy Speeches
How it works: Read the excerpts from the following speeches and have your teams identify the name of the speech from which the excerpts are taken. Each correct answer is worth 1 point.
“The successor to a doctrine of containment must be a strategy of enlargement -- enlargement of the world's free community of market democracies."
“As in the case of Greece, if Turkey is to have the assistance it needs, the United States must supply it. We are the only country able to provide that help.”
“It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.”
“What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash-heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people.”
“We believe that liberty is the design of nature; we believe that liberty is the direction of history. We believe that human fulfillment and excellence come in the responsible exercise of liberty. And we believe that freedom — the freedom we prize — is not for us alone, it is the right and the capacity of all mankind.”
“There are challenges facing the Asia-Pacific right now that demand America’s leadership, from ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea to countering North Korea’s provocations and proliferation activities to promoting balanced and inclusive economic growth.”
“It is inherent in our firm attachment to democracy and freedom that we stand always ready to use the fundamental democratic procedures of honest discussion and negotiation. It is now as always our hope that despite the wide differences in approach we face in the world today, we can with mutual good faith in the principles of the United Nations Charter, arrive at a common basis of understanding.”
“Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?”
Round 2 - Historical Movies
How it works: Give teams the following brief plot summaries and have them name the film. Each correct answer is with .5 points.
Captain John Miller takes his men behind enemy lines to find a soldier whose three brothers have been killed in combat.
Ostracized by fellow soldiers for his pacifist stance, he goes on to earn respect and adoration for his bravery, selflessness and compassion after he risked his life -- without firing a shot -- to save 75 men.
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces colonel who sees himself as a god.
Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were frantically but successfully evacuated from the beach using every available naval and civilian vessel.
In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.
Violence escalates inexorably in this twentieth-century colonial war, with children shooting soldiers at point-blank range, women planting bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resorting to torture to break the will of the insurgents.
An unhinged American Air Force general orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union, resulting in a desperate scramble as the U.S. President, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and British Royal Air Force work to forestall nuclear armageddon.
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
Round 3 - Name the U.S. Foreign Policy Practitioner
How it works: Here is a Google Slides presentation that displays the photos of distinguished U.S. foreign policy practitioners. Share your screen with the participants and click through the slides one by one, as the teams identify the practitioner in each photo. Each correct answer is worth 1 point.
Round 4 - Historic Treaties and Agreements
How it works: Give your teams a year and have them identify which treaty/agreement was signed during it. Each correct answer is worth .5 points.
2018
1648
1783
1794
1992
1919
1815
1949
1988
Round 5 - Alphabet Soup
How it works: Give your teams the following acronyms for a contemporary or historical U.S. government agency, international organization, or nongovernmental organization. Have them identify the full name associated with the acronym. Each correct answer is worth 0.5 points.
NSC
USAID
ASEAN
OECD
UNESCO
ECSC
MSF
CFIUS
Round 6 - Lightning Round
How it works: Have your teams write down the principles of Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Summaries of each point can be accepted as correct responses Each correct answer is worth .5 points.