Particularism and Diplomatic Risk

            After having played Diplomatic Risk, my understanding of world politics as Particularist was greatly reinforced. The way I see it, nations are very much focused on their own national interest when looking to bargain on the international level. Some examples of these interests for the United States would include topics like oil, international trade regulation and terrorism. To begin with, the United States and the constituents of the government are very focused on gas prices, oil, as gas is very much an aspect of everyday life in the U.S. As a result, a major focus of United States foreign policy has been the Middle East. While the U.S. does have other interests in the Middle East, the amount of focus given to this region would not be nearly as large if oil was not such an important resource in the world. Furthermore, the economy in the United States, which has struggled in the past 10 years, drives much of the international discussion in regards to the United States. Citizens benefit greatly financially from a good economy, making trade regulations a hot topic for the U.S. To keep this economy going, the United States works to preserve its self-interest by keeping trade channels around the world open. A recent example of this through a particularist lens would be the U.S.’s decision to sail near the Chinese land grab in the Pacific. The goal of this was to keep open trade lanes. It is also an example of the U.S. focusing on its own interest and not worrying about the interest of the Chinese in expanding their territory. Finally, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York, the United States has been spearheading a “war on terror.” When the proposal for this war was proposed, the support for it from the population was a supermajority. As a result, the United States has been extremely focused on the ways in which it can combat terrorism throughout the world in order to protect its citizens, which is a paramount concern of the populous.

            Each of these examples provide support for the fact that the world system very much operates on a Particularist system. When playing Diplomatic Risk I saw this assertion very much reinforced. Each team was given an objective that needed to be completed in order for their nation to win the game. These goals were drastically different from the goals of the other nations meaning that it was possible for some nations to work together to accomplish their goals. Instead however, compromise did not come easy to most teams. Rather the overarching strategy, other than that of Team Black, was to be at war with those who had control over the “national interest” of their country and to then take what was needed by force. In short, this small scale example of world politics very much underlined the Particularism Theory. Nations will support their national interest first and foremost and in doing so particularize issues and groups, in this case the different teams, in order to achieve this goal, largely ignoring anyone who had a different objective or interest.