World Politics reflection/simulataion

The simulation was not that helpful. All it did was help me realize that when people get together in a large group and try to use Robert's rules of order; nothing will get done. When you have to vote to vote things get confusing and nothing gets done. Even less things get done when we have "environmentalists" crash the conference. In my opinion we didn't talk about the issues that were most important in helping a developing nation such as trade liberalization. Nations can and do get corrupt officials overthrown when the population grows tired of the corruption. An example of a country overthrowing a corrupt government was in Poland with the Polish group Solidarity overthrowing the government and taking its place. Other countries have established anti-corruption measures without the aid of third parties or other nations. Anti-corruption is a thing that is best done at the behest of the people of the particular country.
As an overview of the semester, I was disappointed with the UC class. This class talked mainly about IR theory while it was supposed to be a World Politics course. While I learned a lot about IR theory, I felt that this is not what a World Politics class should cover, at least for the entire semester. A more practical use World Politics course would have been more useful in gaining an appreciation for the subject. The abstract theories caused many of us to become dissatisfied with the course. Furthermore, it was not really necessary to buy any of the books for the class as the class discussions rarely centered around the use of the books and when they did, it was easy enough to make comments without ever actually reading the book. While I have made some good friends in the class, I would say the overall experience of the course was disappointing and not at all what I had originally expected or hoped to gain from the experience.