The Foreign Service Journal, May 2003

M A Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 59 in the game was short-lived. True, he had nothing to worry about from my German troops, but another pact, between the ambassador’s France and the development contractor’s Austria- Hungary, soon isolated his forces in the east behind the equivalent of a Maginot line. Russia became irrele- vant. But the game was never complet- ed. Just two rounds after my German forces were routed, another pact came unglued. This one involved Amb. Brinton’s France and Peace Corps Volunteer Mark Silas’ Italy. (The ambassador was making secret pacts with everyone but me, it seemed; the guy was way under- employed in his day job.) Mark had done diplomacy with the player who had Austria-Hungary and they came up with a super-secret counter-pact against Amb. Brinton’s France. When they sprang the trap, the ambassador went ballistic. First he threatened to shut down the Peace Corps and the aid project. Then he cooled down and threatened just to send them both home. Then he cooled down further, and just threatened to black- ball Mark Silas from ever joining the Foreign Service (which Mark was thinking of doing after his Peace Corps tour). The ambassador’s wrath ended the game prematurely with most powers still on the board and the outcome still in doubt — except, of course, that things suddenly looked bad for the ambassador’s France. For me and my kids the whole experience was educational — but not precisely in the way I had expect- ed. My son Richard liked the game. He spent some time analyzing how we could have played better — maybe by conducting diplomacy with more than one of the other players; sort of what Ambassador Brinton had done. Daughter Nina’s final judgment was that you can call it a game, but it wasn’t her idea of fun. ■