POL & IS

POL & IS (Politics & International Security) is an interactive simulation game carried out by the German Armed Forces that takes into account political, economic and ecological aspects of international politics.

In the game, the political, economic and military structure of the world is simulated in a simplified manner. The simulation is supervised by youth officers of the Bundeswehr and carried out primarily with young people under the supervision of teachers.

However, the simulation game is also exposed to criticism, on the one hand by the peace movement , which criticizes a basic structure that is too militaristic, and on the other hand from a political science and didactic point of view.

Emergence

In the 1980s , Wolfgang Leidhold , a member of the Department of Political Science at the University of Cologne , developed the simulation POL & IS together with an interdisciplinary working group at the University of Erlangen . The aim was to bring the interrelationships of world politics closer to the students. Taking economic factors into account, the political students should make decisions in the simulation that determine the course of world politics and thus grasp the complexity of international security policy in a playful way. In 1989, Leidhold handed over the rights for POL & IS to the Bundeswehr. Since then, the game has mainly been played with secondary school students, trainees and students under the supervision of youth officers . In addition to economic components, ecological aspects are now also taken into account in the individual moves. POL & IS supports the work of the youth officers, whose task it is to impart knowledge to young people about security policy and the tasks of the Bundeswehr as well as their framework conditions - including international politics. POL & IS is irregularly adapted to the changed political circumstances in the world. In 2001 , Leidhold was honored with the Karl Carstens Prize of the Federal Academy for Security Policy for his services to POL & IS .

POL & IS world

The POL & IS world is divided into thirteen regions, all of which comprise several real states. The regions are:

• North America
• Europe
• Japan
• Arabia
• Russia
• China
• South America
• India
• South East Asia
• Africa
• Oceania
• Central Asia
• Central America

How many regions are represented in a simulation depends, among other things, on the number of participants.

The regions of the POL & IS world

In all regions, initial conditions such as B. Minimum standard of living of the population, number of energy and raw material deposits, number of security guards, number of production centers that are designed realistically and serve as the basis for the actions of the respective government.

roll

The participants from POL & IS assume a fixed function in the simulation. There are four different offices in the respective regions:

• Head of government
• Minister of State
• Economics Minister
• Environment Minister

In addition, there are the following supranational functions that are also taken on by participants:

• UN Secretary General
• World bank
• World press
• Non-governmental organization such as B. Greenpeace or Amnesty International, summarized as regional or global opposition

In the various roles, the participants can shape the politics of their region and the world according to their ideas, taking into account the initial conditions.

Modules

POL & IS consists of different modules and can be varied in different areas by the simulation manager depending on the target and group of participants. The basic modules are politics, economics, security and the environment.

The core of the policy module is the political program, which represents the principles and goals of the government of a region. It is up to the simulation participants themselves to set priorities. Other policy areas (e.g. development policy, population policy, domestic policy or social policy) can easily be taken into account. The simulation participants can, among other things, conclude contracts, hold demonstrations, schedule elections or putsches in some regions.

The focus of the economic module is on supplying its own population. In addition, however, it is also important to increase economic performance in the energy, raw materials, industry and agriculture sectors in order to achieve economic growth in one's region and thus increase the ability of domestic and foreign policy to act. If the respective minister of economics does not achieve this, strikes, famines, demonstrations or even the formation of guerrilla armies can result.

The “ networked security ” approach should be able to be simulated with the security module . For this purpose, the simulation participant as minister of state, depending on the development status of the region, has security tokens in the form of military forces (land, air and sea forces), police forces, development workers and diplomats. Depending on the crisis and conflict situation, these can be placed and used on a world map. With the security pieces can u. a. organized crime, guerrilla units or piracy are encountered.

The environmental component records calculated pollution depending on the number of production centers and residents. The simulation participant can react as environment minister and take measures to contain environmental pollution. Among other things, he can impose stricter requirements on the industry to avoid pollution, increase the population's environmental awareness and recycle the waste that has been generated. These measures can be supported by creative political programs.

In addition to the four basic modules, the simulation manager can incorporate various additional modules (e.g. environmental conferences, meetings of the Security Council, good / bad harvests, financial crises, economic crises or natural disasters) in order to set priorities or to increase complexity. Random events included by the simulation management refer to current political events and include them in the simulation.

Game flow

The timing of the POL & IS simulation is divided into individual POL & IS years, with each year running according to a certain pattern with phases of domestic policy and phases of foreign policy:

Consultation phase

The year begins with the establishment of the budget within the region, the conception of an environmental plan, the definition of the political program and the military strategy of the respective region. The same forms are used to make environmental and economic investments and to adjust the number of military units through armament or disarmament.

Brief advice I

In a short domestic policy consultation, the simulation participants should coordinate foreign policy activities with domestic policy guidelines.

Trade, negotiations, operations

The minister of economics then trades goods on the stock exchange and buys the needs for his own region or sells the surpluses of production, while the head of government can negotiate and conclude contracts between the regions on the political floor. These contracts mostly serve the purpose either to secure resources for the next year or to adopt security-political alliances and mandates. In this phase, the Minister of State can deploy the stationed forces, e. B. create new production centers through the use of development workers.

Brief advice II

Once again, in a short domestic policy consultation by the simulation participants, the foreign policy activities are coordinated with domestic policy guidelines.

International information

At the end of the year, the General Assembly of the United Nations is held, at which a representative of the respective government can give an overview of the politics of the past POL & IS year. With rhetorical skills it is important to present successes and failures and to answer questions from the international community.

Additional phases

In additional phases, bodies (UN Security Council) can be convened and elections can be held. Should there be special conflicts in the POL & IS world, these can be discussed as a separate phase.

regulate

All players receive a detailed briefing from the simulation manager before the simulation. In addition, they have a set of rules tailored to their function, from which they can derive processes, regulations, data and options for action. The POL & IS rules are designed to be open and can be further developed.

didactics

General

POL & IS takes on the learning objectives of various social science subjects and provides opportunities to practice them. The youth officers can set their own priorities by choosing the modules politics, economics and the environment or choosing the topics for the short presentations. A supplementary and possibly contrasting preparation and follow-up by the teacher is recommended. POL & IS is interdisciplinary in itself, links can be found in politics, ethics, religion or history lessons. In terms of organization, the simulation may be suitable for a project week in which other actors (e.g. school newspaper, environmental work group) and perspectives can be included.

motivation

With the network character of POL & IS, the continuous activity of the participants is aimed for. They fill the roles of political actors, have to make decisions and are confronted with the consequences of their own actions. The personal concern should promote the willingness of the participants to deal with the facts at hand.

information

The simulation imparts knowledge about the political and economic conditions in the individual regions of the world. Here are some examples:

• geographical location and geostrategic situation,
• Distribution and scale of resources and industries,
• political systems, programs and core values ​​of the individual regions,
• existing contracts, e.g. B. UN Charter , EU , NATO , OSCE , etc.
• military balance of power,
• Population distribution and growth.

For technical reasons, different countries and interests are standardized within a region and not further differentiated. The lecturers have the option to differentiate or deepen if necessary.

cognition

The aim of POL & IS is to set different cognitive priorities. In general, the interrelationships between the participants should promote the perception and understanding of mutual dependencies, such as common interests, restrictions and constraints in political decisions or the need for cooperative conflict resolution.

Depending on the interactions and the events occurring during the simulation, different emphases can be set. Possible topics are political structures, the phenomena of power and terrorism and the concept of peace and security. Questions such as the effect of certain means of power, the emergence of distrust and enemy images or the consequences of the actors' actions can arise. Through crises and conflicts, the participants encounter these questions during the simulation and should answer them for themselves. Due to the given framework conditions, the use of the military to secure raw materials or to enforce other economic and geostrategic interests is obvious and is not fundamentally questioned in the game. Communicating the importance of the military to the economy and the well-being of the population is also one of the aspects of the simulation. This is also one of the points of criticism of the simulation, as this is sometimes controversial, but is not always openly expressed by the Bundeswehr as the provider of the simulation.

training

POL & IS should offer the opportunity to train social skills. Processes have to be set in motion and decisions driven forward within their own region. In order to conduct day-to-day political affairs, the participants communicate either directly with one another in summits and conferences or indirectly through government statements and press releases. They practice speaking freely, presenting their concerns and themselves, as well as empathizing with others. The aim is for them to train to adapt flexibly to changing situations and to remain level-headed in dynamic political developments. The participants develop their own ideas and visions in order to master the complex challenges. In order to realize them, they have to convince others and mobilize majorities.

Framework

POL & IS is usually played for 2–5 days. Most of the time the game takes place in educational institutions, youth hostels, schools or barracks. The duration is necessary in order to understand the complex relationships and to be able to shape its role in world politics. In order to be able to simulate POL & IS meaningfully, 37-55 participants are required. Therefore, the simulation is especially useful for groups such as B. class groups in question. In most cases, the youth officers take care of travel and accommodation. You will also take on the further organization and implementation of POL & IS . Among other things, they provide the game materials and accompany the simulation from start to finish. POL & IS is generally offered free of charge. For the excursions, however, there are costs for the participants, which can vary depending on the accommodation and meals. In some cases, however, there are also funding opportunities from political education providers. In order to be able to play POL & IS , you have to contact the regional youth officer of the Bundeswehr. This can then provide information on whether there is the possibility of playing POL & IS and in what framework this can happen.

criticism

Criticism from the peace movement

The simulation is criticized from the peace movement. For example, there was a protest against the use of simulation at the Leipzig Book Fair . The critics fundamentally reject the idea that schoolchildren and students are taught the use of the military as a means of conflict resolution - "Ultimately, the players always asked themselves when and how they should use the military". The Militarization Information Center criticizes that the learners, for whom participation in the simulation is often compulsory, is able to use nuclear weapons.

Political Science Criticism

The mediated learning content is also criticized from a current political science perspective. Although the simulation can convey the interaction of different parties with different resource levels, the simulation lacks a useful mechanism for including domestic political factors. The simulation thus moves in an understanding of foreign policy that would view foreign policy as largely detached from domestic policy , i.e. represent a worldview committed to neorealism . The majority within (German) political science have been assuming for some time that foreign policy is significantly influenced by domestic policy (cf. e.g. constructivism ). The elementary question of war and peace in particular depends heavily on the internal constitution of a state. In addition, these more recent thought models also explain the motivational situation of those actors whose objectives are domestic in nature (ie the participant in an international negotiation tries to achieve a result that is most useful to him “at home”). This does not mean, however, that questions of the distribution of power and the arrangement of units within the structure of the international system can be completely disregarded when examining the stability or instability of regional power configurations.

Web links

• The official Pol & iS brochure of the Bundeswehr (PDF file)
• Federal Academy for Security Policy
• Information for participants
• Critical voices on POL & IS from the Militarization Observatory IMI

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedensforum Duisburg ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Internet presence of Cornelia Hirsch, Member of the Bundestag
3. ↑ Edmund Schulz in Ossietzky 7/2002 ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Heiko Humburg in IMI Study 7/2008 (PDF file; 657 kB)