Nathan Hammerschmitt Le Gal
Great Issues Scholars: Wargaming Simulation!
Dartmouth is all about trying something new, and for one day, I became the Prime Minister of Russia.
Picture this: you're assigned a leadership role in a given country, you're provided with a limited pool of resources, and you're supplied with a secret set of objectives to complete. You're faced with countries each presented with their own scenario, and you have absolute freedom in the actions you choose to take. Diplomacy, trade, espionage, war—it's all on the table.
This was essentially my starting point in the game Alliance, a wargaming simulator organized by the Dickey Center for International Understanding here at Dartmouth. As part of the Great Issues Scholars program (GIS), I had the opportunity to spend an entire Saturday working with fellow students to advance my country's position in the game.
The event took place in partnership with wargaming professionals from the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Each nation had an advisor, and ours was David Sampson, a current professor who used to fly fighter jets in the Navy.
Our nation was "Strong Nation," or Russia (as denoted by the flags on our neat name tags). The goal of the game is to increase your nation's "Status," and this is achieved by reaching your assigned goals. Professor Sampson made it clear from the very beginning that we had a very different role than many of the other nations. While South Korea, Japan, and the United States were tasked with innovating new technology and facilitating international peace, we had to stage invasions and utilize military force.
I learned that this was a quite hard role to play. We staged a failed invasion of Japan, lost substantial amounts of resources, and lacked the means to rebuild a post-war Russia. I did learn, however, how complex and nuanced navigating international relationships can be. Each round was a whirlwind of talking faces, handshakes, and private meetings. I was overwhelmed by the amount of deals offered—deciding our next move was always the hardest part.

In the end, every nation increased its status to a respectable level (yes, even us, and our dedicated partner, China). Fortunately, another goal of the game is to keep all countries over a certain status threshold so that no nation is left behind (go international development!). Our objectives did in fact make advancing hard, since aggressive actions will by default provoke adverse reactions. Maybe we didn't come out on top, but we survived.
For more information about the Great Issues Scholars Program, please visit this link!
Posts You Might Like
Having been swamped with midterms and papers all week, Green Key was just the reprieve I needed.
I recently took the MCAT; read along to hear how Dartmouth had prepared me for the test!
Dartmouth's community is truly the best of the best!
One of the most rewarding parts of my time at Dartmouth so far has been participating in research. Read on to learn more about how Dartmouth makes research accessible for all students!
A personal perspective on how Dartmouth's resources and funding make it easy for students to get involved and follow their passions.
A peek around my sophomore year residential building!
My experience at the Women and Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) open house during orientation!
In my freshman year, I wrote a blog revisiting my decision of attending Dartmouth College. Now that more than a year has passed, I would love to revisit my decision again, with a more realistic lens.
Read along as I finish my Classics major abroad in Athens!