O'Brien, Joseph E.Bechard, BrianFulbright, ThomasGreen, KoriLawrence, Nick2013-06-072013-06-072012O'Brien, Joseph E.; Bechard, Brian; Fulbright, Thomas; Green, Kori; and Lawrence, Nick. Online Interstate Student Diplomats Discuss What Justifies War: 'We don't want people to die, but we don't want to lose our oil'. Journal of Education & Learning, 1.1, 99-108.https://hdl.handle.net/1808/11232This is the publisher's version, also found at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jel/article/view/17286Given that most research in online discussion addresses asynchronous discussions and that middle school students receive little opportunity to engage in sustained, substantive dialogues, there is a need to develop and pilot ways to instructional support students in sustained, online synchronous discussions about public policy issues such as why nations go to war. This article presents: a blended learning instructional model for an online synchronous discussion that was developed and piloted; instructional and logistical issues raised with the model; suggestions on conducting interschool online discussions to promote students’ online voice; and, samples of students’ thinking about what justifies war.en-USArticle10.5539/jel.v1n1p99openAccess