ICONS User Manual: Implementation Issues

Scenario

Country-Team Roles
Team Organization
Decision-Making Procedures
Scenario
Position Papers
Communication
Foreign Language
Umpiring
Grade
Facilitation

The heart of any simulation exercise, be it in a simple small-group setting or an elaborate multiple participant, multi-location exercise such as ICONS, is the simulation scenario. (Examples from past semesters are available from the ICONS website.) The scenario sets the stage for the interactions that will take place both within and among teams. It defines the issues, the central actors, and the time-frame within which the exercise will be played out. Scenarios vary in their complexity, ranging from very detailed "historical" settings to simple decision-making situations. Participant roles may be explicitly defined or left vague. These differences in approach are decided upon by the simulation coordinators and depend upon the issues involved and the focus of the various curricula into which the simulation is incorporated.

The ICONS scenarios have been developed with an eye toward creating unavoidable issues with which the simulation participants must grapple. Typically, the scenario is set at some point in the not too distant future, to prevent students from taking their moves out of the daily newspaper, while at the same time not allowing them to stray too far from the reality of their country-teams’ past and present foreign policies.

The goal has been to make the simulation scenarios as realistic as possible, while at the same time injecting them with sufficient urgency to keep all participating units on their toes and active. The simulation exercise is designed to take on an identity of its own, and while the scenario is a convenient starting point, developments will often leave it behind. A well-designed scenario quite frequently pushes the simulation beyond the critical issues it initially establishes.

The scenario can be single or multiple-issue in scope, depending upon the pedagogical needs of the instructors involved and the resources available to participants and faculty. In the past most of the exercises have been four to five week multiple-issue exercises addressing topics ranging from arms control to Third World development to specific regional tensions. However, for the past few years, we have been conducting more narrowly focused regionally-based simulations, lasting three weeks. These exercises and their scenarios allowed an in-depth exploration of the particular issues involved. Thus, while not providing as clear an image of the whole picture of international relations, participants in the mini-simulations were able to get a firmer grasp of the dynamics within the scope of their exercise.

As mentioned above, the ICONS simulation places the international system at some point in the future, and then proceeds to simulate the daily interchange of messages and communiques among the participants, over a three to five week period. As a consequence, one should not expect dramatic developments on all fronts during the course of the exercise. After all, how many dramatic events take place during a typical four-to-five-week period of diplomatic history? Students should be constantly reminded, particularly if they become disturbed at the slow pace at which events unfold, that this is not a game to be won or lost. Rather, like the system it simulates, it is an ongoing process, and few issues or problems will be resolved during a typical simulation exercise.

Under ideal circumstances, the scenario for an ICONS simulation should be available for distribution to students at the beginning of the semester or trimester. Students should also be assigned to country-teams at that time, so that they can begin the process of familiarization with the issues facing the international system in general, and their country in particular. (ICONS has put together an on-line research library at http://www.icons.umd.edu/reslib/ to help students with their research.) These issues will also help determine the appropriate functional and regional divisions for the teams as they attempt to form themselves into efficient decision-making units.