As a member of the United States Department of State, I played the role of a spokesperson and a negotiator throughout the simulation. Before the first session, I felt prepared due to my previous research about the position of the current United States administration despite being unsure of the exact procedure of an international relations simulation. Although our class did not come to a cohesive resolution, I believe that my group achieved our goals of not taking in any refugees, avoiding a larger conflict, and finding a sort of stability in the area. I mean stability in the sense of ending the conflict between Gilbia and Budan, despite the lack of funding.
My favorite part of the simulation was the ability to think of creative solutions to find the compromise between conflicting countries. It was interesting to see how, even though every groups’ were different and sometimes the opposite of what others wanted, that we were able to think of several different ways to solve the refugee crisis. One thing that I struggled with in this simulation was keeping the peace between the U.S. and Malil. My tendency when I find things to be untrue or to hold ulterior motives is to cut ties and expose the truth. In this simulation, however, our goal was to avoid further conflict and thus I had to restrain myself from cutting all ties with Malil. One thing that could be changed to make the simulation a bit more effective would be to give exact quantities for things such as land area, money, and refugees. It was difficult to determine how much we could aid in terms of money and how much land the refugees needed without exact quantities.
This simulation taught me that people and groups can always be moved from their original standpoint. Also, that most people state their original conditions as being less flexible than they really are in order to get the best possible outcome for themselves. I also learned that, despite different views, everyone can find some way to connect with others and that is how you can find solutions, through finding common goals.