A large part of my work at KU establishes the mutually-beneficial intersection between teaching and research. My dissertation highlights how we can use social science experiments in the classroom to study foreign policy and teach our students. Classrooms can frequently provide punctuated natural experiments: in my case, the COVID-19 pandemic invited innovative classroom techniques in both distanced and in-person learning environments. Participants (the students in a large introduction to international politics course) navigated a two-level bilateral US-China Trade War simulation in the classroom, wherein each participants was assigned (1) a country team (US or China) and (2) an interest group to represent (globalist, protectionist, and security). After conducting this experiment across three semesters, I find (1) student learning outcomes were higher for those exposed to simulations; (2) women (she/her) and men (he/his) have different determinants of negotiation success in domestic and international negotiations, and (3) security interests are over-represented in economic negotiations.