ICP held its annual international crisis game

April 18, 2016

On April 9-10, 2016 the Department of International and Comparative Politics held one of its annual crisis games where on a chosen topic student play roles of various decision makers trying to achieve objectives of countries they represent. Around 40 students from various departments of AUCA as well as students from International Ata-Turk Ala-Too University, International University of Kyrgyzstan, Eastern University, International University of Central Asia took part in the game which focused this time on the Syrian crisis.

Playing the roles of presidents, foreign ministers, media and heads of international organizations and leaders of warring factions helped students to understand better dynamics of international conflicts (and particularly situation in Syria) and learn various aspects of foreign policy decision making and skills of negotiations. “It was a complicated and hard game for me. At times, I was confused by the political actions of the actors. However, at the end I learned a lot” said Sediqqa Mohammad Hussein (AUCA, Soft-2014). The game helps to engage critically into viewing current ongoing world issues and Aigul Goehring (International University of Kyrgyzstan) noted that “this activity is useful for the students because it improves the critical thinking”.

Learning in game like situations is one of the best ways to learn. The crisis game “was highly mind challenging, unrealistically realistic and really fun process of strategic actions and emotional negotiations full of both objections and compromises” said Ranat Rysbek kyzy, (International University of Ataturk Ala-Too) and also noted that “it gave me a chance to look at the troubled Syrian issue in depth from the lenses of different actors and analyze why it has become a never ending game of world actors.”

Crisis games were held by the department since 2003 and were previously focused on Iraq, Afghanistan, South-East Asia, Central Asia, Ukraine and various other conflict situations.

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