On Friday afternoon, room 309 in Frist Campus Center resembled the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange — students rushed from corner to corner, frantic looks in their eyes.
Princeton Interactive Crisis Simulation (PICSim), a conference run by the International Relations Council (IRC) and designed to reinvigorate often-staid Model UN simulations, was in session.
An American cruise ship had just been hijacked by Jordan in the Suez Canal; Egypt and America were preparing their response.
Further east, the Iraqi government was facing growing unrest and requested an additional 15,000 troops to enter Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the Jordanian government was sitting back and watching the action.
"We don't have a situation for Jordan? All right, there are a lot of Palestinians in Jordan, and Hezbollah is going to incite terrorism to enfranchise the Palestinian citizens in Jordan," exclaimed one member of the conference.
"Did this already happen?"
"It happened already."
"Is this in the capital of Jordan? Should I blow up a skyscraper?"
"No, a government building. Find a government building, and blow it up."
Within seconds, delegates representing the Jordanian government were told that Amman City Hall was no longer standing.
Such was the world for the 30 PICSim crisis team members this past weekend.
PICSim invites delegates to take the seat of a national leader and weave through international crises while faithfully adhering to their leader's ideas.
Bringing together delegates from more than a dozen universities, from the University of Pennsylvania to the University of Konstanz in Germany, the third annual PICSim focused on the Middle East.
"Everything that we do in this conference is student-driven," said Kayvon Tehranian '08, IRC vice president and PICSim chief of staff. "The computer programs that we use have been designed by students. The crises we use are student-created. We are the only university with a conference like this."
Before arriving at PICSim, delegates were assigned to one of 11 countries in the Middle East. Then, during the conference, the crisis team developed crises to which the delegates reacted, creating a chain reaction that affected the entire region.
Assisted by a student-designed version of instant messaging and a CNN-like news site named Global News Report, members of the crisis team took on several roles — from intelligence agencies to news reporters to liaisons between the countries.
With each country sent off to a different room in Frist, there were no cross-country consultations. Each committee was ordered to simulate what actual leaders of those countries would do in the situations presented by the masterminds in the crisis room. Meanwhile, intelligence reports were fed to the countries, and news reports were posted on the Global News Report site for all committees to read.
"Our goal is that at no point during the conference will you feel isolated or restricted by endless parliamentary procedure and overwhelming committee sizes," IRC president and PICSim chairman Luke Goodwin '08 said in a letter to the delegates. "Instead, your every move will be felt by every other delegate involved."
The crisis begins
After more than a year of preparation, delegates from several schools filed into Dodds Auditorium Friday, March 2 for the opening ceremonies. Since last year, the number of delegates has more than doubled, bringing the total to 130.
Daniel Kurtzer, Wilson School lecturer, visiting professor in the Middle East Studies department and the former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, opened the conference with a keynote speech.
Citing the Middle East as "a region in significant distress," Kurtzer emphasized the need for leaders to understand the situation in the region, especially the roles of energy, globalization, terrorism and economic and democratic development.
Referring to the American reversal of attitude towards the Iraqi government and the recent concerns over the Palestinians' election of Hamas, Kurtzer said, "If we're pushing for more democracy in the Middle East, are there viable ways for us to support it? If we withdraw aid to democratically elected governments, then what signal does that send out?"
After the speech, delegates from participating colleges left for a reception at Quadrangle Club before the all-day simulations began.
Ultimately, the IRC hopes to enlarge the conference while retaining its uniqueness.
"It's a cool opportunity to simulate how the world works," Goodwin said. "It's a way to try policies and to get solutions."
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