Blog—7
Diplomatic Risk is the shit. I think PTJ should make it a game that other people can buy, because it’s just about the most stimulating board game on earth. However, to engage the actual question posed, the key element that relates Diplomatic Risk to the real world is the people behind the scenes. The Heads of State are only partially in power during DR because they are constantly being advised of the group plan, because as they are sitting isolated from the bustle of the game, they are relatively uninformed about the workings of their state. This is very unlike the real world where a Head of State would ideally have the most comprehensive grasp of state strategy and status.
The realistic component of the game which makes it so enjoyable is the off board and off World Council allegiances, bargains, and treachery. Players are constantly aligning themselves with one thread of play and revolutionizing their gameplay at the end of every turn. As things change and shift in the real world, so do the interactions between states, as they do in DR. The disease outbreak in the United States is one such incident where states act mainly out of self-interest and their viewpoints change, as they do in the real world.
However, similar to real states, each team in DR has a way to win the game or “objective” that they are constantly working to achieve. This can be equated to the core values that all nations hold and define the way a nation goes about conducting their foreign policy. DR is an effective instrument to immerse IR students in a simulation setting that exposes us to some semblance of what goes on in the international community.
While the game is set up to give the heads of state only partial power, I believe that they nonetheless hold an amount of power equal to, if not greater than, heads of state in the real world. In the case of the red team, the head of state (in conjunction with the diplomat) often made decisions without consulting, or even informing, the entire team. In our group's case, the head of state held the greatest amount of information and as a result had the most power.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, agree with your claim that the social dynamics of the game create a realistic and enjoyable simulation of world politics. Similarly, the shifts in diplomatic relations between states as a result of differing objectives accurately portrays interactions between entities in actual IR situations.