Playing for Peace with Strategic Crisis Simulations

By Caroline Gilmore

Peace requires patience, and, when there is a history of past conflict, it can be hard to lay the grounds for peace and justice.  Nevertheless, on a sunny Saturday morning in October, over seventy participants and eight mentors gathered at George Washington University to take part in Perilous Peace, a simulation of Colombia’s current peace negotiations.

Perilous Peace was Strategic Crisis Simulations’ first simulation of the semester. Strategic Crisis Simulations (SCS) is an undergraduate wargaming and crisis management organization affiliated with the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Undergraduates use experimental learning to teach peers about diplomacy, national security, and human rights through simulations and crisis drills. Through creativity and constructive gaming, SCS helps participants become confident, critical thinkers that are ready for the professional world.

Set in September 2023, Perilous Peace centered on the fifth cycle of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the ELN (Ejército Liberación Nacional, or the National Liberation Army), the largest insurgent group in Colombia. Representing civil society, stakeholder state and non-state actors, and the UN, participants navigated through the challenges of negotiations to achieve a peace deal.

This simulation was one of two annual diplomacy-and humanitarian issues-focused simulations that SCS hosts in collaboration with the Elliott School of International Affairs’ Leadership, Ethics, And Practice Initiative (LEAP). Perilous Peace participants in questions surrounding accountability, conflict, and justice. Writer teams developed three main plot lines to explore these issues.

Coca farmers’ protests brought up issues of land redistribution and the Colombian government’s capacity to fulfill promises from the 2016 peace deal with the FARC, the former largest insurgent group. Meanwhile, an influx of Venezuelan refugees into Colombia strained available resources, resulting in service delays and social disturbance. Finally, the discovery of a mass grave engaged participants in discussions on accountability and justice for the conflict’s victims.

Player teams represented an array of stakeholders, modeling the Colombian peace talks’ real-life groundbreaking (and much needed) inclusion of civil society. Prior to the simulation’s start, player teams strategized and designed game plans to effectively secure their assigned objectives within individual classroom “offices.” Drawing out maps and outlining their priorities on white boards, participants prepared for the peace talks.

 As a Discord message announced the simulation’s start, participants streamed into hallways, seeking to resolve some of Colombia’s biggest challenges.

Negotiating needs and collaborating to form coalitions, players representing civil society advocates, Colombian policymakers, ELN representatives, and delegates from the United States and Venezuelan governments engaged in rigorous debates over the terms and construction of peace. Participants sought to answer questions including: How would the ELN be held accountable to disarmament and demobilization? Would there be amnesties for ELN members who participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? How could the Colombian government ensure citizens’ security and wellbeing with its limited capacity?

Utilizing the 2016 peace deal as a framework, the player teams broke up their negotiations into six main points of discussion and debate. Within an United Nations (UN) negotiations room, conversation stalled as grandstanding took place of effective engagement, despite the UN team’s best efforts. Instead, progress accelerated through informal hallway meetings between player team representatives.

SCS events benefit from the presence of mentors, who range from professionals in academia, policy, and practice. Observing team meetings and negotiations, mentors advised players, using their experience and topic-based expertise to provide helpful strategies or tactics for players in their pursuit of team objectives. Much of the advice centered on soft skills of professionalism and diplomatic communications: how to present one’s objectives as a compelling choice for other stakeholders, and how to ensure buy-in, were often-discussed topics.

At Perilous Peace’s conclusion, participants emerged with not one deal, but several, smaller peace deals, in hand. Disaggregating the issues, teams found that they had more success in negotiations with one another, building up trust to embark on bigger, more challenging conversations regarding the establishment of the ceasefire and peace terms.

For us at SCS, the simulation was an astounding success, resulting in applied, experiential learning. While many participants began without experience in negotiations and conflict resolution strategies, by the end of the simulation, they had engaged in strategic diplomacy, collaborated with stakeholders, and learned how to use multilateral partnerships to achieve their goals without military force.

Crisis conjured creative collaboration opportunities for growth. Though Colombia’s peace began as perilous, by the end of the simulation, it was more possible and preeminent than ever!