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Here at the Naval War College, in struggling to tie together our sessions on arms control and negotiation, we have finally settled on a simulation exercises. This game has proved to be a powerful synthesizer, and several players in various positions within Government and civilian academia have suggested we share this tool with others. Our purpose here is to describe the game in a manner so intriguing that our readers will want to use it.

ONE APPROACH TO STUDYING THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE People's Republic of China (PRC) has been to conclude that they are really a sham, designed to conceal the absence of citizen rights, and therefore presumably of little benefit as documents for study. Constitutions, however, are forms of political expression, and are perhaps best approached as reflections of changes in policy orientation. Their purposes include the formal institutionalization of past changes, the expression of immediate political priorities and laying the foundations for reorientations in basic policy.

Improving patient safety has become a core issue for many modern healthcare systems. However, knowledge of the best ways for government initiated efforts to improve patient safety is still evolving, although there is considerable commonality in the challenges faced by countries. Actions to improve patient safety must operate at multiple levels of the healthcare system simultaneously. Using the example of the NHS in England, this article highlights the importance of a strategic analysis of the policy process and the prevailing policy context in the design of the national patient safety strategy. The paper identifies a range of policy "levers" (forces for change) that can be used to support the implementation of the national safety initiative and, in particular, discusses the strengths and limitations of the "business case" approach that has attracted recent interest. The paper offers insights into the implementation of national patient safety goals that should provide learning for other countries.