Understanding the History of International Politics: A Retrospective and Repeated Type of Gaming and Simulation in the Classroom

The purpose of this paper is to develop multilayered views of rules of gaming and simulations of international politics, especially with respect to the changeability of rules. In this case study, students play a role-playing game of the 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident. Many kinds of games and simulations of international politics are recognized today, but most of them use fixed rules. In real society, including international relations, rules and institutions are not continuous for forever; they are changeable and evolving because actors influence systems in the same way as they change systems. The “Senkaku game” is a trial of a history retrospection and a repeated type of gaming and simulation with this ability. This game is a simulation of a series of occurrences involving the arrest and indictment of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat by Japan in the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The actors are Japan, China, and the United States. The goal of playing the game is to reflect on and replay the incident, which factors are important and which factors and actors prefer which options and when. We would like to show this game not as a reiterative game for the future but as a historical reality. By understanding the historical reality through the theories of international relations, the results of the game can mainly be explained by neorealism. In reality, however, Japan and China reached a compromise based on a neoliberal institutionalist understanding. As a result of the first game, students discussed how they would change the rules and then played again with the changed rules to approach the historical reality. This game simulation led students to understand the history of international diplomacy and politics more easily.