In recent years, a RAND-developed "The Day After." exercise methodology has been used to explore strategic planning options, both for nuclear proliferation and counter-proliferation, and for questions involving "security in cyberspace" and "information warfare" (IW). On March 23, 1996, a "The Day After.in Cyberspace" exercise with approximately 60 participants was conducted at RAND's Washington D.C. offices, under the sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The purpose was to generate suggestions and options regarding research and development initiatives to enhance the security of the U.S.

information infrastructure. The scenario in the exercise involved a Mideast crisis situation, with Iran as an aggressor. Exercise participants discussed both short-term technical fixes to counter IW attacks that were hypothesized to occur in the year 2000 and longer-term research strategies that could be initiated now to avoid significant vulnerabilities in the future.