Playing Diplomacy and Learning International Relations
Posted May 20, 2024
This Spring, students in International Relations put their skills and knowledge to the test in a semester-long game of Diplomacy running in the background behind the class. Diplomacy is board wargame where students form and break alliances as they seek to take over Europe. The game is based on the years leading up to World War I as students played the role of seven nations who struggled for supremacy over Europe.
Each player seeks to win control of strategic provinces called supply centers. If students gain supply centers, they can create more armies. If students lost a supply center, they lose an army. The students negotiate with other nations about what moves they will make with their armies to place themselves in the best position to win. Of course, sometimes, nations tell another nation they will do something when they have no plans to do it so they can gain an advantage. Students then turn in military orders which will be executed during the movement phase.
The most interesting aspect of the game was the gender dynamics. For several days early in the semester, Union did not meet in person due to snow. During this time in their dorms, the female members of the class met together and decided to work together to eliminate the male players. By coordinating their efforts, they successfully eliminated the nations led by males. By the time the males figured out what the ladies were doing, it was too late.
Once the females had eliminated the males, the females had to fight it out among themselves. Several players took the lead at various times and a few almost won, but in the end, Italy reigned supreme with the aid of Austria-Hungary.
The Diplomacy game served as a launchpad for in-class discussions about the nature of international anarchy, a testing bed for the big theories of international relations, and a venue for no small amount of political and strategic experimentation on the part of the students.
After the game, students reflected on their experiences:
This game gave us the opportunity to employ the theories in a way that was practical and useful and allowed us to actually have to encounter the theories we discussed.” Others learned more about life: “Honest alliances are worth a lot,” and “I feel like this game assisted in our abilities to read people.”
But the most common response was to reflect with either appreciation or frustration on the strength of the late-game German-Italian alliance. “We could not put our differences aside.” “The alliance ended up being most important.” “There was no unified front on our part.”
In the end, Sarah Grace Patrick was declared the conqueror of Europe and was awarded the Political Science Department’s Machiavelli Award for winning the game as Italy.