Risk: The game of world domination. And yet I find myself the head of state of a peace loving nation. For security and confidentiality purposes that is all I will reveal about my state and its goals as we are still in play. At first I was very disappointed, but I am learning that peace can often be more interesting than war. Our alliances that we are trying to make are done with great care and deliberation. We must be careful not to offend anyone or to complicate the process any further. Because so many of the nations are at war, we must be careful who we ally ourselves with as well. I have come to find the process of negotiation important, because if one did not participate in the process they would often have to guess of the intentions of others and have little to no influence on other states. By participating in the process, we get to find out the goals or at least how those goals are going to be carried out. We can use this to develop a more accurate picture of the world. This can work as a cooperative process or as I believe we are seeing in risk, in a realist self-interested process.
The game of risk by itself is a very realist game and I think even with PTJ's new rules, that it continues to be realist. All the nations are given strict objectives and accomplishing these objectives are the only way to win the game. Who doesn't want to win, right? To accomplish these objectives, the nations are doing whatever is necessary. I don't know what the goals are but I can assure you that whatever they are, the nations are basing their actions so that they can accomplish those goals and win the game.
Despite all this and my own view that the world is pretty realist, I reject the belief that nations never do things because they believe it is the right thing to do. It never benefited the United States in any way to intervene in the humanitarian crisis in Somalia in 1992, but we did it anyway. As a nation we have become way too cynical, to the point where it seems we do not believe humans are capable of compassion. This view will only destroy us. Call me an idealist but I really think idealism is something we are lacking and could really improve our lives in a lot of ways if we give it a chance to grow instead of rejecting all possibility of human civility.
I agree completely with you. I find that this game is completely Realist. You feel it even more as groups deliberate among themselves. Remember the first moments? Everyone was among their groups, whispering about what was “on the paper” and the groups overall goals were. I haven’t exactly been in the diplomat table, but I wonder how many people have been forced to develop a poker face. Do you think countries are actually like this? I wonder if countries are honestly only self-interested. I know that your group is allied with all the groups, and I’m sure that part of it has to do with your ultimate objective, but I wonder why a country would actually do this. What are their motives? Their objectives? I can’t exactly get into the mindset of a country and understand their decisions.
ReplyDeleteI’m trying to understand (and I’m pretty sure just like everyone else studying International Relations) what is the nature of these relationships. Is it purely for the good of society or is everyone driven by the desire of power and influence over the world?