Diplomatic Risk

The Diplomatic Risk game was quite a nice spin on the usual game. The limited objectives made the game especially dynamic. In real life no state realistically is trying to conquer the entire world. Instead the seek their less grand national interests through both diplomatic and military means; much like in the game.

The game was incredibly fast paced. You had practically no time to send try to get a feel of what other countries were doing. Furthermore, we had no prior knowledge about what the countries wanted. In world politics the US can be sure that India isn’t trying to take over Puerto Rico but in the game the possibilities are endless. A team has to try to figure it out based solely on the team’s actions. However, because our group went second we all figured out each other’s objectives based on talking to the group before us. So, one could say that we based our ideas of their objective based on a shared history, much like in life.

The game was still completely centered around the military. Even the diplomacy was just a way to pursue military goals. The economy wasn’t involved at all. National identity was also removed from the game. None of us thought of the places where we started off as our homelands. Therefore, giving up a piece of land that didn’t matter militarily was a small price to pay for consolidating your forces. Additionally, the rules of war got thrown out the window. There was no such thing as citizens; therefore there was no collateral damage. Land ownership hinged completely on military occupation; therefore all attacks were legitimate. It was like all the rules, norms, institutions, and international laws of today’s world politics disappeared and we went back to a system of international relations similar to 16th century Europe.

While I didn’t personally see what happened at the end I find it quite interesting that three teams agreed to a tie. It sounded like the liberal poster child ending: achieved selfish goals through cooperation. And because there were no indigenous nationalist populations wiping our other countries didn’t matter. Cynthia Enloe certainly wouldn’t approve.

Overall, the game of Diplomatic Risk was a fun way to escape the intensive theoretical studies of the past few weeks and see how these theories could be used.