Charley Hamilton | Staff Writers
July 18, 2023
Walking into International Relations, worlds collide as many assume the class discusses political relations with foreign countries, but it’s larger than surface level. Described as “D&D but with countries” the class steps further into the concepts of International Relations.
During the class, Lauren Hines, the instructor, uses an interactive simulation of the government. This experience teaches the students how to make political decisions based on the different policies, pros, cons and costs that a United States President must make. This can sometimes cause disagreements in the class, however Lauren does a good job of keeping a civilized conversation throughout the class. Students discuss, in a calm respective manner, the differences and come to a conclusion about the choices that need to be made.
Discussions in the class consisted of the normalized rights and wrongs of different countries and how sometimes the best choices are not always an option. Sometimes we don’t have enough information but are required to choose the best one based on the knowledge we have. That being the case, scholars made decisions constructed from the ideas, morals and responses from other countries. This posed the political question of what is more important, trading partners of other countries or their values?
Scholars discussed how the decisions that they’ve made may only be a one time thing but now they know that they have the capabilities to do that thing again. Scholars gained an understanding of struggles and having to make uncomfortable decisions based on the good of other countries.
