Description
About
SIM – Foreign Crisis is an Assignment where you explain how a foreign crisis requires domestic political actors and international political actors to strategically interact in a complex network.
Estimated Time
An estimated 2 hours is needed to complete this activity.
What is a Foreign Crisis?
A foreign crisis is something that is happens outside of the country you reside in that attracts the attention of your country’s public, media, or government officials.
Why are Foreign Crises important in International Relations?
Foreign crises are important in international relations for three reasons.
First, foreign crises can affect the interaction between a foreign country’s government and its people. The government of every country, regardless of whether they are democratic or autocratic, are responsible for the safety and well-being of the people within their borders. Thus, when a crisis strikes a country, it is largely because there is some natural event, like an earthquake or typhoon, or human-made event, like civil unrest or military coup, that upsets the status quo and requires actions and reactions between governments and their people.
Second, most countries are keenly interested of what is happening in other countries for the political, economic, social, and military ramifications it can have on them directly, and their allies or adversaries indirectly. This means when natural or man-made disaster strikes a country, it can send waves throughout the international network of countries that disrupts existing political, economic, and social connections. These initial disruptions can cause minor or major slowdowns in countries far beyond the one where the crisis is occurring.
Finally, foreign crises may require the governments of other countries to take actions to buffer from, minimize, or account for the effect of the crisis. Most governments cannot turn on a dime, meaning they are slow to react. Regardless of the speed of the reaction, a reaction must occur which requires government officials, at the very least, and the country’s broader public (people, media, businesses), in the broadest sense, to be discuss, debate, and decide on an action.
Types of Foreign Crises
Biological weapons attack
Chemical weapons attack
Cyberattack
Major military conflict
Minor military conflict
Nuclear weapons attack
Outer Space anomaly
Pandemic
Trade war
Virus outbreak
Instructions
Step 1: Select a type of Foreign Crisis
Step 2: Provide a real or imagined example of this foreign crisis type
Step 3: Describe how the foreign crisis affects an international political actor
Step 4: Describe how the foreign crisis affects a domestic political actor
Step 5: Describe how the foreign crisis requires a domestic political actor to strategically interact with an international political actor
Step 6: Describe how the foreign crisis restructures a complex network
Rubric
Rubrics are “a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests”. Every assessment in the course has a rubric. A table of this assessment’s rubric is provided below for students. However, this table is not accessible for some screen readers.
For students using a screen reader, an accessible version of the rubric table can be accessed by scrolling down further or clicking on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the assessment and selecting “Show Rubric”.
