I noticed today that the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reductions has produced a very nicely-designed online education game about disaster mitigation strategies called Stop Disasters! It is packed with information, links to further resources--and, unlike the WFP's (very successful) Food Force game--is very, very playable. Its primarily designed for K-12 (especially high school) education.

I've written a longer review of it elsewhere, but I'm flagging it here because it does seem to be that a very similar approach could be used to build a COIN/stabilization simulation that, while still very "game-like" could be targeted for secondary or even post-secondary education, ROTC, or even basic training. The point is not that the simulation is hyper-realistic--it is not, and used properly those very shortcomings can even be used to spin off some "teachable moments"--but it is a rather addictive way of getting people to access information and understand relationships (in the case of Stop Disasters!, between development planning and disaster vulnerability). Certainly teens and young adults will easily adapt to its very SimCity approach and interface.