London, Nov 17: There is tension across the Line of Control. Pakistani terrorist groups have assassinated an Indian minister. India launches punitive air strikes across the border. Pakistan makes a flanking movement. The Indian Army starts marching. A new, hawkish Indian defence minister takes office, speaking of revenge. Pakistan has a red-line nuclear alert. The White House Situation Room, which has discussed every major emergency since the Bay of Pigs, deliberates the world's options.
It really happened. Senior Republicans and Democrats, including former US ambassadors to India and Pakistan, joined with men who had worked at the White House at some point of their political career for a remarkable Situation Room brainstorming session. And this is one the world will uniquely get to see later this month.

The Sunday Times of India exclusively brings you details of an unprecedented 90-minute special BBC programme, titled The Situation Room, which features a "plausible hypothetical scenario" and stars Washington's political insiders. Inviting first a British audience and then possibly an Indian viewership through BBC World into the heart of the world's superpower, programme producer Susan O'Keeffe tells STOI that "the point is to give a bird's eye view of how a real crisis would be unwrapped and examined by White House-type people".

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