ED53F- 0958: Integrating international relations and environmental science course concepts through an interactive world

1. ED53F-0958: Integrating international relations and environmental science course concepts through an interactive world politics simulation Katherine H. Strauband BarisKesgin, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA • SUCCESSES • Based on two sets of essays about their Statecraft experience written by the Environmental Science students (Dr. Straub’s class), the following quotes are representative of the knowledge of international relations gained by the Environmental Science students: • “This game shows how incredibly hard international relations can be. Making mutual agreements, treaties, and proposals while still maintaining environmentally friendly characteristics is very hard to accomplish. With this simulation achieving world peace is a lot harder than I would have ever expected.” • “Some countries have issues that might feel more pressing to them than global warming. Countries may be more concerned with problems such as pirates or conflicts with other countries and don’t have the resources to be able to deal with more than one problem at once… Countries may become impatient with solutions that take several turns and opt only for short-term solutions that provide instant results and are less expensive.” • “When it comes to world affairs, environmental problems and concerns take a back seat… The environment is important but the quality of life of people takes the front seat in global issues.” • “The lack of communication I had with the countries represents a real communication barrier between the actual countries of the world. Implementing change on a global scale is hard because it requires the support of various nations, many of which have differing opinions and ideas.” • “One must be careful when exercising its militaristic power over another country because it tends to take a toll on the country as a whole and takes away from other important issues that might arise while they are focused on the war.” • “Although being environmentally safe may seem like the ‘uncool’ and boring thing to do in the simulation it is obvious that it will be helpful to all countries in the long run to be as environmentally sustainable as possible and think about the well being of their country.” INTRODUCTION This semester, students in two unrelated introductory courses at Susquehanna University (Selinsgrove, PA) participated together in an online international relations simulation called Statecraft (http://www.statecraftsim.com). The two courses that participated in the simulation were POLI:131 World Affairs (Political Science, Dr. Kesgin) and EENV:101 Environmental Science (Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dr. Straub), each with 20-30 students. This poster is written from the perspective of the Environmental Science course. In Statecraft, students are divided into teams representing independent countries, and choose their government type (democracy, constitutional monarchy, communist totalitarian, or military dictatorship) and two country attributes (industrial, green, militaristic, pacifist, or scientific), which determine a set of rules by which that country must abide.  Countries interact over issues such as resource distribution, war, pollution, immigration, and global climate change, and must also keep domestic political unrest to a minimum in order to succeed in the game. THE STATECRAFT “WORLD” SIMULATION SETUP This semester, the Statecraft “world” (see map at top center) was divided into 9 countries, governed by the Political Science students. These students chose their country’s regime type and attributes. Each Political Science student had a defined leadership role: Chief Decision-maker (President, King/Queen, General, or Chairman/woman), Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, or National Security Adviser. The simulation is divided into “turns,” each lasting roughly a week but not specified in advance. In addition, the simulation end date is not specified, to represent the “shadow of the future.” Each turn, countries earn resources: oil, gold, food, steel, and scientific knowledge. Countries may use these resources to undertake domestic and international programs in areas such as health, education, and the environment; they may also build gold and steel mines, trade resources, declare war, spy, and cooperate with other countries on “Big Projects” that require more resources than a typical country can accumulate. These programs and projects then affect future resource allocations. Each country has 6 distinct domestic factions, whose approval ratings influence resource distribution, “political capital,” and the frequency of demonstrations and riots: 1) capitalists, 2) socialists, 3) environmentalists, 4) nationalists, 5) civil libertarians, and 6) intellectuals. • NEW ROLES IN THE JOINT SIMULATION • While the Political Science students took on traditional roles in Statecraft, new roles were created for the Environmental Science students: • Environmental advisers: Assigned to a specific country, these students were tasked with, at the very least, improving the government’s approval by the environmentalist faction. Otherwise, the role of an environmental advisor could include (a) formulating policies to the Cabinet, (b) acting as a liaison between their country and other actors on environmental issues, or (c) a Cabinet-level post such as “Secretary for the Environment.” • Independent actors: We also created 6 additional new “independent actor” roles, which operated independently from the 9 countries’ governments. • Environmentalist Lobby: Represented an environmental advocacy group, like the Sierra Club. Tasked with lobbying for environmental causes and convincing other actors in the simulation to contribute to their cause. • Industrialist Lobby: The voice of industrial interests, like Exxon-Mobil. Tasked with increasing industrial production in all countries. • Environmental Scientist: Tasked with introducing scientific findings about environmental problems by writing reports to be sent out to all the simulation members. • Philanthropist: Tasked with financially rewarding those countries who are committed to enacting environmental policies or who are willing to initiate such policies. • IPCC: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) represents the voice of scientific wisdom on the issue of global warming. Tasked with convincing countries to cooperate on the “Globe of Frost.” • UNEP: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) aims to generate some universal cause for the environment. Tasked with convincing countries to actively take part in a debate to protect the environment. • Each turn, each independent actor was given resources (gold, oil, food, steel, and/or scientific knowledge, whichever combination was most appropriate) to distribute to the country(ies) of their choice. This was meant to give the independent actors some measure of control outside of the traditional governmental structure in the simulation. • SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS • Since this was the first attempt at a joint simulation, there was much room for improvement. Environmental Science students as a whole were fairly dissatisfied with the simulation, and offered the following suggestions: • More in-class discussion of Statecraft in the Environmental Science class (there was not nearly enough due to time constraints); • More in-person joint class meetings (there was only one); • More resources for independent actors to distribute (they felt they did not have enough resources to make a difference); • Better communication between independent actors and countries (this was difficult to achieve through the Statecraft email system); • Better communication about what was going on in the simulation (it took a lot of effort to keep up with the day-to-day happenings, both from the student and instructor perspective). ICE MOUNTAIN AND THE “GLOBE OF FROST” Early in the simulation, Ice Mountain begins to melt, threatening to flood coastal cities. One cooperative “Big Project” that countries can collaborate on is called the “Globe of Frost.” Its effectiveness in stopping the melting of Ice Mountain is not certain, but it is the only available solution. Countries must pool their resources to build the Globe of Frost, but with additional international crises such as pirates, slavery, the threat of war, immigration, domestic political unrest, and the temptation to invade the resource-rich “Sapphire Island” (center green island on the map), the Globe of Frost typically takes a back seat. This semester, perhaps because of the involvement of the Environmental Science students, the Globe of Frost was successfully built very early on in the simulation. It was spearheaded by the the outgoing leader of an eventually very successful country, one which also ended the simulation with a very high environmental rating. DATA COLLECTION An initial survey was administered in October before the simulation began. A post-survey will be administered in both classes next week. Both classes were required to submit multiple essays on the simulation.