In the simulation I played the role as the Delegation of Malil alongside Briton, Kyle, Becca, and Leah. Going into the simulation I felt sort of prepared, but not totally. There were some things that I learned along the way, such as generally you acnowledge the moderator with something to the sort of “Thank you esteemed chair,”. However I felt pretty good about knowledge of Malil’s stance once we moved into negotiations. I feel as though me/ the Delegation of Malil were not able to fully accomplish all that we had wanted to do. Our main goal was to minimize the United States involvement in the region, but I feel as though what was signed did not minimize to the standards that we wanted.
In all I really enjoyed the activity, and it was fun in my mind argueing and negotiating with others with limited information and limited time to understand the information given. I also liked the negotiating on the short term deals, in which all delegations were trying to spin their proposals in a way which pushed their agendas further, but in a way that made it seem as though it was in the common good. I also liked the difficulty of the negotiations, and that it was not easy to get others behind your plan. I enjoyed how we had to sway others to hop on board, or try and dissuade delegations from hopping on the opposing plans.
The biggest thing that I struggled with in the first day was gaining the confidence to speak. At first I was too scared that if I were to say something that it would have no relevence or just come out in a way that did not make sense. Once I finally got over that the simulation became much easier and more enjoyable, which was helpful because I became basically the spokesman for Malil on the second day.
At the end of the day the only real thing that I would change in the simulation is add a delegation for the Rubits. I feel as though negotiations would become more interesting if there was a group to represent them, and that it would remove some of the stories that were made up by groups that were not written into the simulation to try and prove their points. Because of this simulation the most important thing that I learned is how hard compromising on things you disagree with really is. When you are trying to represent a country that has a stance, and you know that a policy is not what they want but you know that if you push too much further nothing will get done is a valuable lesson to understand. The whole take what you can get kind of thing, or to know when to cut your losses.