ABSTRACT
The International Communications and Negotiation Simulations (ICONS) Project has developed a suite of World Wide Web-based, text-centered simulations that serve as a tool to teach aspects of international and domestic politics for social science classes at both the university and high school levels. Simulations provide a kind of counterpoint to the theoretical learning in a politics or negotiation course. “The ICONS Project aims to capture the complexity and subtlety of international political issues through detailed scenarios focusing on real or plausible policy” (Ip & Linser, 2001). A typical ICONS simulation puts students into the position of world leaders and asks them to navigate the often thorny world of international diplomacy. Simulations can be developed around routine diplomatic tasks, such as negotiating trade agreements or human rights accords, or they can focus on the dangerous decisions involved in managing humanitarian interventions or preventing full-scale war. ICONS provides for both synchronous and asynchronous communications among participants and supports an educator’s use of online simulation by providing a simulation controller (SIMCON), who monitors the exercise and carries out a host of administrative and educational activities in relation to the simulation. ICONS’ premise is that simulations offer the social science students an opportunity to learn from first-hand experience in much the same way that laboratory experiments allow students of the physical sciences to observe actual physical processes. Each year, ICONS runs approximately seven university-level and five high school-level simulations, with an average of 15 teams per simulation. Since 1990, 162 universities and 129 secondary schools from 37 countries have participated in ICONS simulations.
