When Global Politics Is Just a Game
When Global Politics Is Just a Game
When Global Politics Is Just a Game
By Chloe Hadavas
March 13, 2021
Summary
In their crudest form, world politics-and especially great-power affairs-may seem like a game.
It's no surprise that they served as inspiration for the classic military board games of the 20th century, which have made a resurgence during the pandemic, with new users finding escapism in the strategic tabletop games of the past.
Over the past few years, we've covered a board game used to train future U.S. defense strategists, a late 2020 release named Sex With Stalin, and many a game in between.
The most enticing, at least at first glance, may be Sex With Stalin, but as the author Nate Christiansen wrote last November, the video game is disappointingly dull despite its basis in the "Truly depraved" idea of time-traveling to seduce the Soviet ruler.
Of course, the idea of the figurehead of a repressive regime that criminalized homosexuality being central to a game with sex in its title is ripe for satire.
Hedgemony-spelled with a "d" because it forces its players to "Adopt hedging strategies that trade off between different priorities," according to one of the game's designers-is a board game rooted in the nitty-gritty of great-power politics.
If it sounds complicated, there's a reason for that-the game wasn't designed for the public.
The game showed that supporting Japan in such a conflict would risk war between the United States and China, but declaring a winner wasn't exactly the point.
The board game Gandhi, which came out in 2020, depicts India in 1947, the year British rule ended.
The four major factions in the game are the British Raj, the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and the Revolutionaries.
Reference
Hadavas, C. (3266, March 13). All the world's a game. Retrieved June 20, 2021, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/13/foreign-policy-video-board-games-diplomacy/