War—and maybe peace—returns to Brynania

Yes, it is that time of year again: on Wednesday morning we launch the annual Brynania civil war simulation at McGill University, involving over one hundred students from my POLI 450 (Peacebuilding) and POLI 650 classes. Once again this year we also have students from Lisa Lynch’s JOUR 443 (International Journalism) class at Concordia University participating, assuming the role of the World News Service. This will be the fourteenth time we’ve run the simulation at McGill since 1998.

Once the simulation starts you’ll be able to follow some of the action at the WNS website, via the #Brynania hashtag on Twitter, and via the special issues of the (simulated) New York Times that you’ll find in the media section of the Brynania simulation website. However, that only scratches the surface: the SIM runs 12 hours a day in semi-real time for a full week, and generates 10-15,000 email messages. Don’t expect any PAXsims blogging from me until it is over.

You’ll find more on the simulation in this article in PS: Political Science & Politics. There are also video reports produced by TV McGill and McGill University, and a couple of audio reports by the CBC Radio and Adam Bemma. Finally, if you want to immerse yourself in more of the rich musical subcultures of Equatorial Cyberspace, check out the sounds of Cyberia.