USIP's Open Simulation Platform (OSP) at George Washington University

USIP’s Open Simulation Platform (OSP) expanded into new territory in April 2010 to a George Washington University (GWU) undergraduate class titled Theory and Practice of Peacebuilding. Twenty students from the class participated in a two-day Afghan reintegration simulation led by Senior Program Officer Ronald ‘Skip’ Cole and GWU Professor Tarek Maassarani.

The Afghanistan Reintegration simulation places the players in a small team in a remote village in Afghanistan where they are tasked with trying to reintegrate former Taliban members back into ordinary society. The simulation is designed to place students in a stressful field environment where, to be successful, they will have to balance the pressures of headquarters’ demands, a rapidly changing local environment, and keep an eye to long-term goals while managing day-to-day relations/events in a local community.

Professor Maassarani’s Comments on the OSP

First, the simulation was a fantastic success by all measures.  Upon the students' urging, we extended it to two full days and received glowing feedback on the educational value of applying concepts to "real life" situations using the online platform.  In our debrief, it became obvious that the insights learned spanned the entire semesters' material and beyond.  We have recorded the students' specific feedback, but suffice it to say that I am intent upon using this technology in my subsequent classes and sharing it with my 
professorial colleagues.  To this I wish to add that the simulation was incredibly stimulating and enriching to run as the control.

Many positive student comments were received, including the following.

• Overall, I found the simulation an engaging and effective way of tying course principles together into a coherent, context-sensitive and practice-oriented lesson. In my experience, this is both rare and of great value; I was pleased to have the opportunity.
• The simulation definitely reinforced learning. It made everything we've been learning about so much more real to me and helped me to really understand how difficult peace building can be. I learned a lot about how intricate a situation can be and how many actors are involved. It really helped me understand more about how important it is to enfranchise everyone in the process and how something can work on paper, but can easily fail in practice at any point along the way.
• The one thing that really got me was how every person in the room was involved in the simulation.
• This simulation made me realize that theory is so much different from practice. Even if we have a clear plan and good intentions, problems always happens. Problems in logistics, differences in details, and even the wordings we use in letters and announcements may influence the course of the simulation. I have never been sensitive about how to write something as I was today.
• It was interesting to note that most people had similar objectives of trying to reach a stable peace yet the paths which people chose were very different.
• The simulation has taught me that peacemaking in conflict zones is exceptionally complex and cannot be oversimplified or idealized.