Assignment #2: Simulation Debriefing Paper For Introduction to International Relations Class

Write an essay in which you answer the following questions:

1. Which issues or decisions led to the greatest degree of contention among your nation’s leadership? How did the group go about resolving disagreement?
2. What was your nation’s biggest diplomatic failure? What was your nation’s biggest diplomatic success? What sorts of disputes were, in general, easiest or hardest to resolve?
3. Did cheating or backstabbing occur? What prompted it? Did this behavior pay off for the nation that reneged on its commitments?
4. If war occurred: Why did some nations resort to war? How could war have been avoided?
5. If war did not occur was war actively considered as an option? Why was it rejected?
6. Which sort of bargaining strategy brought the greatest benefits for your nation—the promise of carrots (rewards) or the threat of sticks (punishment)?
7. Were Libertania and Crock able to reach an agreement on forming a squirtite cartel? Did each side stick to the deal? Were other nations persuaded to make unequal exchanges in order to obtain squirtite?
8. Overall, were international tensions and conflict greater or lesser at the end of the game than at the beginning?
9. Which aspects of the game were most realistic? Which were least realistic?
10. Which theories of international politics did the simulation game best serve to illustrate? Please comment on at least six concepts explaining the concept (referring to its definition as explicated in the book) and how it applied to the simulation.

Assignment #2 will be turned in on the day of your final in class.