Board games offer us opportunities to explore complex topics, nuance stereotypes, and increase our understanding of multiple perspectives. These tools are especially relevant in the classroom as a way to sidestep entrenched opinions and facilitate critical thinking.
The event focuses on Hegemony: The Competition for the Contemporary Middle East, a card-driven game we designed that covers geopolitics in the region. The game covers the 1979-2019 period and includes events such as 9/11 and the Syrian Civil War. Players balance their regional objectives within shifting international realities and their ideologies.
We discuss the historical perspective underlying Hegemony and analyze it as a cultural object. We also contextualize the game through investigating the tension between games and simulations while considering board games as potential tools for discussing contemporary geopolitics.