Game theory and the successful settlement of civil wars

We're headed into the final stretch of our Peace and Conflict unit in IB Global Politics. Students are wrapping up presentations on selected book chapters (their choice amongst the list below) on intrastate conflict in advance of a case study and day-long simulation on peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The game theory aspect of these presentations popped up today in class-I had no advanced notice that they were presenting this way. Two students used Rousseau's Stag Hunt to demonstrate how actors perceive relative gains of adversaries and the challenges of cooperation in peace negotiation. The student facilitators asked for volunteers from the class to play Stag Hunt, each volunteer making their choices in isolation from one another. The student facilitators then explained the outcome and why it mattered with respect to world politics, before launching into a detailed summary and analysis of a few chapters from Walter (2002). As we've already conducted an initial case study on the Rwandan Genocide, it was interesting and inspiring to see how the students processed Walter's "ripe for resolution" theory towards the peaceful settlement of intrastate conflicts as well as to process their enhanced understanding of the Rwandan Genocide in light of new information. 

 

What makes me so happy to be an instructor is the fact that our class is one where 11th graders embrace the opportunity to read, present, discuss, and apply ideas and scholarship that is generally reserved for undergraduate seminars in international politics. We've worked hard all year on a variety of skills and content; how to read, summarize, and synthesize primary sources, secondary sources, policy journals peer-reviewed journals, to university-press texts; how to write case study briefs on topics and then to draw on this work to support more sophisticated analytical papers; how to understand, explain, apply, and predict events in simulations and in world politics using IR theory and Game Theory. All of the students in the class have continued to show how they are improving their understanding of this complex material during this portion of the unit; something that is inspiring to see so late in the academic year. These are the sorts of days that reinforce my (almost decade-old) decision to teach in an independent school rather that to pursue teaching at university. Of course, Weissman's recent series in The Atlantic also makes me feel a whole lot better about the decision. The quality of interactions with students, the ability to dive deep and to differentiate learning experiences for each and every student, as well as the freedom to continue to teach  world politics is luxury that I am thankful for each and every day. I'll be sure to post pictures and a full recap of our DRC simulation after the 14th. In the interim, please feel free to go out and read what our 11th graders have been reading the past two weeks: 

1. Brown, M. E. (1997). The causes of internal conflict. In Nationalism and ethnic conflict (pp. 3-25). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2. Kaufmann, C. (2006). Possible and impossible solutions to ethnic civil wars. In R. J. Art & R. Jervis (Eds.), International politics: Enduring concepts and contemporary issues (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
3. Kegley, C. W., & Raymond, G. A. (2012). Patterns of armed conflict. In The global future: A brief introduction to world politics (5th ed., pp. 172-196). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
4. Posen, B. (1993). The security dilemma and ethnic conflict. In M. E. Brown (Ed.), Ethnic conflict and international security (pp. 103-124). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
5. Snyder, J. L., & Jervis, R. (1999). Civil war and the security dilemma. In B. F. Walter & J. L. Snyder (Eds.), Civil wars, insecurity, and intervention (pp. 15-37). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
6. Licklider, R. E. (1993). How civil wars end: Questions and methods. In R. E. Licklider (Ed.), Stopping the killing: How civil wars end (pp. 3-19). New York, NY: New York University Press.
7. Byman, D. (2002). Dilemmas and choices. In Keeping the peace: Lasting solutions to ethnic conflicts (pp. 213-225). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
8. Walter, B. F. (2002). Committing to peace: The successful settlement of civil wars. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
   
   

Three recent and interesting reads in education

From The Atlantic, The Coming Revolution in Public Education: Why the current wave of reforms, with its heave emphasis on standardized tests, may actually be harming kids. 

From Foreign Affairs, Why American Education Fails: And how lessons from abroad could improve it. 

Both authors have lots to say about how accountability, standardization, and regimentation is bad for kids, parents, teachers, and the system itself. Solutions probably lie in taking local/school knowledge and assets to network with outside groups to share best practices and avoid a one-size-fits-all or "factory" model of education. 

From Alexis Wiggins (via Grant Wiggins), Be Better: An IB model for all education

Wiggins the former offers advice we all can benefit from (and no, its not to adopt IB programs) with respect to assessment, "Have clear, simple criteria for each major assessment at course/grade level against which all teachers and can assess. And then assess them in multiple ways." In addition, Wiggins ties in much of what Tierney (The Atlantic) and Mehta (Foreign Affairs) have to say regarding networking and collaboration amongst faculty and professional organizations across time and space. 

One of the take aways from this is that we are doing many of these things already at our school: adopting IB-style standards, fostering collaboration across classes and other Meritas schools, and focusing on a diversity of ways our students and families learn and participate in our community. We also need to be sure that as we move to deepen these practices, such as focusing on assessments and performance objectives through SBL for example, that we do so in light of our mission, successes for our students and families, and the hundreds of years of local knowledge we have in all of our educators. 

Happy Reading! 

Lynn University Model United Nations

So, there's no reason to revisit the value of Model United Nations (ok, I did a little...below). I'm also a little late in posting these pictures, however. Some of the GLOPO students participation in Lynn University Model UN back on 5 April. This was Lynn University's first year in offering a single-day, Model UN Security Council simulation for high school students. The GLOPO students represented the governments of Argentina, France, Morocco, and Rwanda. The topic for the simulation focused on humanitarian intervention and to what role, if any, should international organizations play in balancing the concepts of state sovereignty with that of human rights and the Responsibility to Protect.

  

What also made this simulation interesting for the class was that we really didn't have that much time to prepare. Students only had-after coming off of Spring Break, working out other topics in our course, and being busy 11th graders-only about 2 weeks to research their countries and the topic at hand. I actually prefer these topic-specific, single day Model UN experiences because it focuses students' attention and gives them a taste of a longer simulation, without being bogged down in 15-hour sessions with "rule hawks," or over-zealous chairs, or some of the darker sides of Model UN.

Lynn plans to offer a simliar simulation again in the fall. I suspect that we'll be able to bring a large cohort of next year' GLOPO Year 1 folks as well as some Year 2s who want to diver deeper into simulated diplomacy.

References

Bonwell, C. C., & Eison, J. A.,. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education.

Levintova, E., Johnson, T., Scheberle, D., & Vonck, K. (2011). Global citizens are made, not born: multiclass role-playing simulation of global decision making. Journal of Political Science Education, 7(3), 245-274.

Manzo, K. K. (2007). Model U.N. breathes life into often dry subject areas. Education Week, 26(39).

McIntosh, D. (2001). The Uses and Limits of the Model United Nations in an International Relations Classroom. International Studies Perspectives, 2(3), 269-280

Muldoon, J. P., Jr., & Myrick, C. J. (1995). The Model United Nations: 50+ and growing strong. Educational Leadership, 55(2).
Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? a review of the literature. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-231. Retrieved from http://ctlt.jhsph.edu/resources/views/content/files/150/Does_Active_Learning_Work.pdf

Shellman, S., & Turan, K. (2006). Do simulations enhance student learning? An Empirical Evaluation of an IR Simulation. Journal of Political Science Education, 2(1), 19-32.

Smith, E. T., & Boyer, M. A. (1996). Designing in-class simulations. PS: Political Science and Politics, 29(4), 690-694.