A Risky Week

Well, Risk. Hm. This week was quite unusual in as much we didn't have any readings or any real "work" to do -- or so I thought when looking at the syllabus. As it turns out, I worked harder and spent more time on World Politics this week than I have any previous week, neglecting the Wednesday labs (but don't tell PTJ that, it might reflect poorly on my work ethic!). But it was still a highly enjoyable week, even if I did get a little too into it.

It is said that politics creates strange bedfellows, and I certainly found that to be the case as we were forced into many different and entangling alliances, most notably the uber-coalition against the Red Menace that quickly disposed of their threat. Then, forced again to make a coalition, we created a new coalition and did away with green which was the only obstacle to victory. Thanks to Fiona's whirlwind diplomacy, we were able to secure a victory for all three remaining players. I suppose that was the part of the game that was most like real life world politics - the alliances of necessity, the backroom negotiation, the backstabbing and cloak and dagger aspect as well.

But Risk is only a game, and while it is a reasonable facsimile of the real deal -- it fails overall in its effort to ape real world politics. Our leaders and diplomats assumed all the functions of a government and civil society and the entire democratic decision making process into executive fiat. There were a few checks, ways for the peanut gallery to voice disapproval, but these were seldom acted upon. With no real accountability, and no real aversion to war, the teams ran rampant declaring wars and massacring thousands in acts that would surely have led to an uproar at home if they actually occurred. Of course, said "diplomatic" risk is only able to really simulate a realist outlook on IR. Of course, it is possible not to do that, to play the game as a constructivist but where's the fun in that? Also, to quote a great philosopher, "A guy waving a club runs up to three cavemen. One fights, one flees and one asks him how his day is. The last one didn't live long enough to reproduce." Risk is fun, but I doubt my mad skills at Risk will have the State Department calling anytime soon.