PSI 2240 - Diplomacy, Statecraft and War

Credits: 2
This course offers students the chance to learn about and apply Foreign Policy, National Security, International Relations, and Comparative Politics in crisis situations. Students will work in teams to represent countries in the Simulation “Statecraft”, which lets students gain experience with setting foreign policy agendas, responding to global and regional crises (such as terrorism, inter-state wars, human rights disasters, and climate change), juggling international and domestic priorities, engaging in diplomacy, and grappling with decisions about war and peace. Alongside the simulation, students will participate in supplementary class periods, in which the various concepts and topics that they encounter during the simulation are introduced and discussed. At the start of the simulation, the teams will choose the ideology of their country and which of them will take on the different roles of their government (such as the president, foreign minister, and minister of defense). They will then go on to decide the actions of their countries in response to world events and the actions taken by other countries over the course of the simulation. As a result of this Jan Term, students will gain new insights into the pressures and challenges confronting world leaders on a daily basis, the competition that exists between foreign and domestic priorities within countries, and how their team’s approaches to foreign affairs and reactions to major international crises play out.
McDaniel Plan: January Term