Throughout the past couple days, our class has been participating in a simulation where the class is divided into groups - with each group representing a certain country. Each country had pros and cons, with groups one and two having a distinct advantage.
Eventually, groups 2, 5, and 6 united against group four. Group four initially had the largest military presence, so together these three groups could prevent their military from becoming even stronger, along with obtaining their resources.
The simulation ended after the declaration of war, and group four made a strong argument for why attacking them recklessly after three turns was not a good idea. After all, even though the other groups would benefit from their defeat, group 2 would eventually take over.
But what would happen if nobody attacked? Would we be able to sustain peace between all countries?
Certainly, groups 1 and 2 would still have a distinct advantage over the others, and would have been able to mass resources significantly faster than the others. Additionally, group 2 likely would have continued their long term plans - their plans to dominate everyone else.
The way we played the simulation, groups 1 and 2 were very likely to win. And even without the war, groups 1 and 2 still would have been more likely to win.
Thus, the game would have a high possibility of ending up with a showdown between these two groups, with one of them winning.
Interesting, I believe that war was bound to break out, especially since there were so many small treaties formed.
ReplyDeleteYou described the course of the simulation really well. However, you should consider this: what would have been the terminal impacts of countries 1 and 2 fighting and one of them winning?
ReplyDeleteIn addition to your thought of what would happen if this war went through. The class talked about how country 1 and 2 would be able to easily pick off the smaller countries. So country 5 that initially started the war wouldn't be standing very long. In the long run if no one started a war countries would still be able to amass a large amount of resources. If countries have tons of resources at their disposal and a war break out, the war could get very big very fast because every country will have resources to spend. Starting a war too early could be fatal but starting a war too late could be more fatal.
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