Recently, Scarsdale High School’s AT International Politics class participated in a simulation as a conclusion to its unit on the global war on terrorism and understanding transnational criminal organizations with respect to their impact on foreign policy. “[The simulation] was of a hostage situation that involved private citizens, three sovereign nations, and the United Nations,” said International Politics teacher and organizer of the event Kami Wright. The simulation was three periods long, and it was done to give the students a deeper understanding of what they were learning about in class. “[These are] really sensationalized topics and there are a ton of misconceptions, and I wanted to have a way for the class to experience the foreign policy implications and also understand the theoretical underpinnings of negotiations and what it really means when the US says, ‘We will not negotiate with terrorists.’ It’s easy to understand, but it’s very hard to understand,” said Wright.

During the simulation, the class was broken up into several groups, including the hostage takers, the United Nations, the media, the public, the Israeli government, the US government, and the Lebanese government. “The simulation was all about communication and reactions. For example, information was leaked at one point in the simulation and we all had to figure out how to react to it within our respective groups,” remarked participant Anya Raj ’19.

According to the students, the simulation had many highlights. “My favorite part was acting as the United States Secretary of State because it was a lot of fun both finding people to laugh at and to blame, but also taking it seriously and trying to fix the situation itself.” said participant Anshu Ajmera ’19. “For me, my favorite part was working with my group to create tactics. It was cool to strategize; it’s not something I’ve ever had the opportunity to do before,” added Raj.

This was the first year that the International Politics class has participated in a simulation like this one, and it was definitely a success. “We didn’t have as much prep time as would have been ideal, but they were amazing,” commented Wright.