Making a game of U.S. foreign policy

What happens when you mix a group of high school students who are avid board game players with a group of gray- (or almost gray-) haired adults who are interested in foreign affairs? Magic happens.

As part of the Community Events program leading up to this year’s Camden Conference, Galen Plummer’s planning committee thought it would be interesting to do some “gaming.” After all, the topic of the conference is “U.S. Foreign Policy for the 21st Century: Seeking a Balance?” And we know that government departments and the war colleges all use gaming as a way of thinking of what may happen and how to deal with possible events.

The Camden Conference got lucky. The Game Loft, a nonprofit youth center located in downtown Belfast whose members share an interest in nonelectronic games, has members up to the challenge of teaching nongamers a game that looks at the current world situation. “Peace on the Edge” addresses a number of today’s foreign policy issues. It is being played by Game Loft members and any adults who show up at any or all three scheduled gaming sessions leading up to the Camden Conference.

Participants are divided into teams representing countries that either have troops abroad or give foreign aid and the countries receiving aid or being occupied. Each country team has a pot of money to give as aid and a number of troops, both overt and covert. The total amount of money and number of troops are based on published data – they represent reality. The United Nations also is available and may play a role, if asked.

Game Loft members have plenty of experience in international role-playing. They have been playing “Pax Britannica,” a well-known simulation in which participants represent countries in the era leading up to the first world war, for years. In Pax Britannica the goal is avoid the war. Each year, as the simulation ends, participants get together for a cultural event in which they dress in national costumes as well as role-play country leaders. These young people know about making foreign policy and know about gaming.

According to Paul McCarrier, a local high school senior who was one of the leaders at the first Camden Conference gaming session, “When you read about foreign policy and how it works, you only get a very basic idea of what it’s really like. In a game, you are given the chance to see the cause and effect of each action, and the difficulty of the choices you need to make.”

As players at the first session we made plenty of bad choices; we acted without talking with other countries, we often brought our American preconceptions to our actions, and we made assumptions that led to unpleasant unintended consequences, to mention just a few.

“The young people challenged the adults not only in a gaming sense but in their understanding and knowledge of world affairs and geography! Age and experience were no advantage,” said Galen Plummer of that first session.

The adults in the first session learned a great deal about how individuals and countries interact. But one of the positive unintended consequences of that session had nothing to do with foreign policy. Young people and adults rarely have the opportunity to work together on sticky problems as equals. The adults came away from the first session awed by the abilities of the students to put themselves in the role of the countries they represented and the seriousness with which they addressed situations while still having fun. We hope they found us less gray than we may have appeared.

The gaming session at the Camden Library today at 7 p.m. will inherit the mess those of us who attended the session in Belfast made of the world. The session at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb 19 at the Rockland Public Library will get the world as created in Camden. Anyone interested in participating is invited to attend either or both sessions; no foreign policy experience is required. And everyone is invited to participate in Pax Britannica at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb 20 at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast.

Galen Plummer puts it very succinctly, “You won’t be disappointed.”

Judy Stein is the current president of the Camden Conference, to be held Feb. 27-29 at the Camden Opera House.