By Ilkin Aliyev
Summary: This article will examine the simulation of coexistence between conflict-affected communities, focusing on a simulation game designed for youth in the Nagorno-Karabakh region between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The game was created by young simulation game designers with training and mentorship provided by CRISP – Crisis Simulation for Peace e.V. Simulation gaming presents a promising new teaching strategy that helps participants stimulate creative thinking in peacebuilding. This format can be understood as a non-formal methodology of peace education, which helps communities imagine coexistence in conflict zones.
Through our program, we trained young people from different regions of Azerbaijan and internally displaced persons (IDP) from the Karabakh region to experience the gaming process and design their own simulations. By exploring the “Oprys” Social Simulation Game case study, I hope that other peacebuilders can learn to implement this dynamic approach in their own local environments.
Overview
A difficult but important responsibility for peacebuilders living in conflict-affected regions is to teach peace to young people and increase the prevalence of peace education within civic education. One tough aspect is often the sensitivity of this subject, and therefore, peace educators should always utilize dynamic and creative methods. I have found that simulation games can be one of the most effective and creative pedagogic methods I personally use in peace education, and am always eager to share this approach with other peacebuilders to explore how it can be implemented within their communities.
Simulation is a complex training technique that mimics and creates potential results for an action, which reflects real life events and conflict situations. Simulation games offer opportunities for participants to communicate in a risk-free environment and develop decision-making skills, at the same time motivating them to verify organizational competencies and set specific goals. In a broader sense, this method can train peacebuilders to develop, implement, and optimize strategies and approaches to action for reaching conflict transformation, peace, and coexistence. Modeling tools encourage participants to interact and work with their team without major errors to achieve productive results.
In a simulation game, individual actors or groups must play certain roles and interact with each other in a predetermined frame. Players are usually required to solve a vital problem, such as taking action or making decisions at the initial stage of the simulation. As a rule, the parameters of simulation games (“scenarios”) include conflict relations between individuals and groups of various activities and/or actual parties. This method also offers players the opportunity to make their own decisions and take action, subsequently taking responsibility for their choices and resolving the consequences. By evaluating the results and obtaining feedback from the actions/reactions of other players, they can reconsider their pre-determined assumptions.
Simulation games offer participants the advantage to test out several different strategies on a given scenario. When participants enter their roles during simulation games, the number of ways to look at problems increases significantly. First, almost all participants are actively involved and contribute throughout the game proceedings; it is difficult to quit the game. Second, due to a change in point of view or the place of another person, participants are put in scenarios that challenge their personal thoughts and encourage them to think about their values, stereotypes, and superstitions. Each of these factors make a big difference in terms of how they enrich the learning process and can consequently lead to more significant results.
Case Study
The specific case I would like to highlight is the “Oprys” simulation game, which was designed by young Azerbaijani game creators and dedicated to the coexistence of peoples after the territorial conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The game was designed in an abstract form to create safer and more comfortable conditions for the participants to play. The roles, names, and regions were fictional, although they reflect real events and conflict.
I personally participated in the designing process alongside my colleagues at CRISP e.V. The project aimed to bring together young people from all over the country (especially internally displaced persons and refugees), to analyze the experience they have in common regarding peacebuilding and joint living in the Karabakh region. By offering a simulation game, our goal was to create inspiration for new approaches and ground for change.
In the fictionalized Oprys region, there was a special area distinguished by its multinationalism, located in the territory of the unitary and secular Pomegran Republic. During different periods of history, the territory was part of various empires and the population of Pomegran and Apric lived there. After two days of community meetings, discussions, and media sessions, participants successfully developed a Coexistence Rules Proposal, which simulated the kind of peacebuilding methods the young people could bring back to their own communities.
Outcome
The teaching goals of the Oprys simulation were for participants to: 1) gain access to soft skills, such as conflict management, negotiation, empathy building, qualitative and non-violent communication, critical thinking, and active listening; 2) analyze and discuss existing and potential problems related to coexistence; and 3) be informed about the future use of their knowledge of conflict transformation, peace building, and the Simulation Game method.
This group of young people were enrolled in a peace education program where experiential learning methods are used to empower the participants to see themselves as more competent practitioners and decision makers, and able to use these approaches in other educational and community settings. We especially taught them how simulations can help engage an audience in active learning, where participants learn from each other and not just from the “sage on the stage.”
Both simulation games as a method and the Oprys Simulation Game we collectively developed can be considered among best practices in peace education through the inoculation of coexistence. This approach can be effectively used for peacebuilding and conflict transformation if we look at it through the prism of its educational function and the fact that it attracts the interest of players with its creativity. Overall, the method of simulation games is dynamic and flexible, which makes it possible to apply to any conflict environment.
A difficult but important responsibility for peacebuilders living in conflict-affected regions is to teach peace to young people and increase the prevalence of peace education within civic education. One tough aspect is often the sensitivity of this subject, and therefore, peace educators should always utilize dynamic and creative methods. I have found that simulation games can be one of the most effective and creative pedagogic methods I personally use in peace education, and am always eager to share this approach with other peacebuilders to explore how it can be implemented within their communities.
About the Author
Ilkin Aliyev is a researcher, peacebuilder, and trainer from Azerbaijan, currently serving as a PhD Candidate at Istanbul University. As a peace worker and facilitator, he has worked with various international organizations and civil society initiatives on local and regional projects focused on topics such as democracy, human rights, gender, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, and civic participation. As a young academician, he is studying social sciences through a theoretical perspective, alongside implementing his practical work for peace.