Statecraft Simulation Analysis

Running Head

The Statecraft simulation is a helpful tool for understanding the different aspects of international politics. In the simulation, students are able to experience diplomacy through trial and error in political positions within their designated countries. In addition, the simulation was created by Dr. Keller to resemble reality. As a result, each country has different advantages and disadvantages with regards to recourses, location, country attributes and government type. Furthermore, through this recourse, students have the chance to gain valuable learning experiences in a manner, not harmful to society.

Throughout the simulation, each country was presented with the issue of international relations. According to the Goldstein

and Pevehouse, “international relations (IR) concerns the relationships among the world’s governments” (Goldstein & Pevehouse 2013-2014, p. 1). Furthermore, international relations attempts to answer the question, “How can a group-such as two or more countries-serve its collective interests when doing so requires its member to forgo their individual interests?” (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2013-2014, p. 3). Each country experienced international relations through the “Three basic principles-which we call dominance, reciprocity, and identity” (Goldstein &Pevehouse, 2013-2014, p. 3).
Every country in statecraft experienced the IR “principle of reciprocity” since “reciprocity solves the collective goods problem by rewarding behavior that contributes to the group and punishing behavior that pursues self-interest at the expense of the group” (Pevehouse & Goldstein, 2013-2014, p.

5). Negative reciprocity occurred when each county belonging the Intergovernmental Organization, known as the United Nations, expelled CBUstan for attacking Sapphire Island. Each country came to this unanimous decision since CBUstan’s decision to attack the island automatically denied the world points for the end of the simulation. In contrast, each country experienced positive reciprocity through international trade. During the simulation, Alpha Delta Pi traded oil steel from Crustacea. These trades enabled both countries to gain needed resources. Furthermore, Alpha Delta Pi was able to make a profit on some of their trades. As a result, Alpha Delta Pi made a 2.5 to 1 trade with The Holy Roman Empire. In retrospect, the leaders of Alpha Delta Pi should have specialized in the production of steel and oil in order to gain a “comparative advantage” (Goldstein & Pevehouse 2013-2014, p.

167).
The world in the statecraft simulation experienced the principle of identity when The Holy Roman Empire stopped the ice cap from melting and saved the world from drowning. In the end, this issue was solved through the Regime Theory where The Holy Roman Empire emerged as the regime to “overcome collective goods dilemmas by coordinating the behaviors of individual states” (Goldstein and Pevehouse 2013-2014, p. 67). In addition, this issue was an example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Each country in the simulation had to trust The Holy Roman Empire with a designated amount of their recourses. As a result, while The Holy Roman Empire won an award for saving the world, it was in everyone’s best interest to contribute to the cause. If The Holy Roman Empire had used these recourses for their personal agenda, the rest of the world would have ostracized or attacked them. Furthermore, every country in the world including The Holy Roman Empire would have drowned.
According to Goldstein and Pevehouse, “dominance solves the collective goods problem by establishing a power hierarchy” (2013-2014, p. 5). During the first few turns of the simulation, CBUstan managed to takeover Sapphire Island. This provided their country with an almost unlimited amount of recourses which they used to their in order to oppress the other countries of the world. For a while, Alpha Delta Pi had one of the highest education ratings in the world. The country’s leaders spent the majority of their time researching technologies for building and improving schools as well as the majority of their recourses building these structures. Unfortunately, since CBUstan possessed a greater amount of recourses than Alpha Delta Pi, they won the bidding for the big project to build Harvard University. In addition, during the first and second Statecraft wars CBUstan had an overwhelming amount of military reinforcements that caused damage to countries such as Alpha Delta Pi and The Holy Roman Empire.
The world of statecraft was predominately ruled by realist theories.

At the begging of the simulation, there was distrust between most of the countries. As a result, each country took precautionary measures to defend their country against an attack through building up their military. After CBUstan took over Sapphire Island, everyone’s suspicions of human nature being selfish were confirmed. Soon after this, CBUstan attacked The Holy Roman Empire for threatening to attack them first. As a result, Alpha Delta Pi and the Holy Roman Empire became allies in order to deter further aggression from CBUstan and their ally Crustacea in order to ensure a balance of power. As a result of their military size, country structures and overall quality of life, CBUstan proved to be the hegemon or state “holding a preponderance of power in the international system, allowing it to single-handedly dominate the rules and arrangements by which international political and economic relations are conducted” (Goldstein &Pevehouse, 2013-2014, p. 48). While this was true during the simulation, after the simulation, The Holy Roman Empire proved to be the real hegemon when they won the majority of the Statecraft

awards.
The world in the simulation experienced several different types of war. The first war was a “territorial dispute” over Sapphire Island in which several countries declared a “Total war” against the territory and it’s inhabitants (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2013-2014, p. 129, 111). In the end, CBUstan occupied the island by defeating both the natives living on the island and the other countries attempting to do the same. After this, CBUstan gained total control of both the island’s territory and recourses.
Individuals from each team practiced the “Rational Model of Decision Making” before writing their memo for each turn (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2013-2014, p. 79). Each team member had a designated leadership role and responsibilities. As a result, each leader had to assess the status of their country and make decisions on how to improve it. Members of each country were expected follow the steps: “Clarify Your Goals in the situation,” “Order Them by importance,” “List the Alternatives for achieving your goals,” “Investigating the Consequences of each alternative,” “Choose the alternative that best achieves your goals” (Goldstein & Pevehouse, 2013-2014, p. 79). After this, each member was expected to write a memo describing this process and then share their ideas with the rest of the group.
The “bureaucratic politics model” also known as “government bargaining,” occurred in Alpha Delta Pi when the countries’ leaders conducted international transactions. The Civil Libertarians, who made up the largest faction in the county, became displeased and even rioted when the country did not acquire gold and steel. However, these recourses, particularly gold, were already abundant in the county, and had to be traded in exchange for other recourses. While, this displeased a percentage of the population, it had to be done in order for the government to have enough funding to build structures and improve the overall quality of life in the country.
The Statecraft simulation helped me understand international politics from a new perspective. Since I am a kinesthetic learner, the simulation was a great way for me to apply the course material in a more tangible way. This learning experience helped me understand international relations on a deeper level. I was able to learn about trade, infrastructure and war through making mistakes in a way that did not literally harm society or the world.