Reflection: Week of 9/9-9/14

Diplomatic Risk in The Real World

          I still don't know how to play Risk, but I think I might know a little bit more about World Politics. My team, the Brown Team, had a difficult objective: acquire twelve territories that either contain or directly connect to a resource. There were five resources, but we started with only one and had an additional territory next to one. We had big plans to take over all of South America since we were at war with the Red Team, who controlled most of the continent. The creation of the Yellow Team and their acquisition of South America threw us for a loop. I learned a little too late that nothing will go to plan and nothing can be predicted perfectly.
           One thing I noticed during the game was how personal relationships could actually make a difference in actions. Being close friends with someone on a different team could lead you to make different decisions. It also helped to know other teams' objectives. While I only knew one other objective, it did help our negotiation strategy. I also spent a lot of time trying to guess what the other team's objectives were. I got pretty close, which helped with negotiations. However, the rules did get in the way of our master plan to buy all the territory we needed. It either would have been easier if we had strategized according to the rules, or if we simply didn't follow the rules. I wonder if all this translates to the real diplomatic world, or if it just applies to college freshmen playing board games.
           Overall, the game was a little overwhelming and a little confusing. It felt like it was impossible to win wars (although that could just be our bad luck with the dice) and therefore it was impossible to reach our objective. There was this constant internal conflict of trying to reach our own team's objective while preventing other team's objectives. Eventually, I found it was just easier to give into other team's objectives because it was easier to work with them.
           Lastly, this game conflicted with my following class: my first-year seminar called "Governing Globally." In this class, we discuss the complexity and international connection in the twenty-first century largely due to the rise of the Internet. Buying armies and fighting wars to win territories contrast the idea of cultural infusion through the Internet. Today's wars are over data or trade and fought over Twitter. That is not to say that the basic principles of the game aren't important, but the real world is so much more complicated- which, to be honest, is a little scary.