Virtual Worlds Reinventing Diplomacy ?

Is it possible that private residents in a virtual world can resolve international and cultural differences better than government diplomats? Some experts think so and are putting their hard-earned USD where their academic credentials are (click for more information or see below).

Do Second Life residents deal with international and cultural differences? Or are we fixated on economics, politics, gender and religion? Hm.. those could be cultural differences I suppose. Have SL residents ever successfully worked something out in those areas?

I suppose it could be said we've worked some things out.. by fiat or LL decree.. or disputants leaving SL. On the plus side, even when we haven't worked things out, it's typically resulted in drama not bloodshed.

So.. is virtual-world SL a place where people can work out real-world stuff.. or is SL a place to escape all that? Discuss..

In my opinion both idesa and ideals are all to accurate. is Sl a place to escape the pangs and troubles and disputes of the RW. Yes of course it is but it has its own inherent drama and conflicts and ots on inherent ways to mediate resolution. You also ask is Sl a viable platform for international diplomacy and I must again say yes, Firstin terms of the Sl platform affording an arena for actual meeting with an eye toward conflict resultion, a veritable virtual meeting ground. And second as a platform for creating ways and means to engineer conflict resoltuion and in terms of contest like the one USC is doing to promote the idea of creating games that will foster international diplomacy and afford the bridging of the gaps between peoples.

I for one am looking forward to seeing the winning game and also hearing with other resi's have to say on the subject.

This is just my humble opinion:

There are people capable of killing others humans without remorse but they are few (thanks god). I do believe that any of us is capable of killing other humans too but only under some circunstances.

Mobs can kill humans if they are in rage... but a group of people can't keep the killing of humans in the long turn. We, as a group, can't tolerate to kill humans.

So, in order to keep a war, the first thing a goverment must do is convince their population that the enemies are not humans but beasts (something that's not human).

That's the final trick that leaders use to ensure that their population will tolerate to kill humans during long periods of time.

But in order to achieve this you must feed the people with some things: hate, fear, ignorance, etc.

First, your people must not know that the others are in fact like them (parents, childs, students, working people, etc... in resumen, humans like them). And more important, try to prevent communication; try to prevent your population to actually see what is going on with the others.

Second, you must create the idea that these non humans are evil. They are beasts that can be eliminate without remorse, without commiting any crime. They are evil that will hurt us, if we don't stop them first.

Third, there must be a reason to do it. You just don't go to war for resources (like Oil) because you are the good ones. You go to a cruzade agaisnt the forces of the devil! For example, this is what terrorist use to convince their soldiers to died killing others. Some terrorist are convinced that they will go to heaven if they die killing the evil enemy.

I am not sure if places like SL will actually serve as diplomatic systems or allow us to "fix our differences" but I do believe that places like these let us, the common people (the population of each country or society), to learn that the others are just like us.

When you discover that the people in the next country is no different than you... how can you accept a war against them?

When you discover that the people of a different religion suffer and bleed like you because their aren't different than you... how can you accept to fight them?

I think that communication is the key for humans to learn that in the end we are all equals.

If we don't learn this, wars and genocides will continue.

So, I think that internet opens the oppornity for just a part of human kind to learn more about others cultures and nations. But lets not forget that the people that can connect to internet are just a little part of humans (2/3 of the total population of this planet is poor... 800 million of people suffer starvation).

So, will the Virtaul Worlds (VW) reinvent diplomacy? Yes, of course... as anything in the world will affect everything.

I don't think VWs will help us with crazy people like terrorist just I don't think they will even come to the VW to learn or even let themselves to learn. Is very difficult to stop fanatism of any kind. I hope I am mistaken and that, in time, all humans will see that we are no different.

The article says things like "For U.S. games, as extensions of the U.S. brand and their role in shaping how the world sees the U.S."... yes, I totally agree. A lot of people in the world think that USA people are evils. They just don't see that the USA people are like them. They fail to see that civilians can't be blame for their goverment's actions. Hey! I don't want to be judge for mine goverment's action neither! LOL

So, yes... MMOs are nice tools for improving diplomacy and helping us to learn more about the world, others and ourselves.

What is the peacemaking advantage of communication through a "virtual world" program as compared with email and text based, voice, and video chat programs?

Bingo. People are people, so why should it be....your Av & I should get around to diplomacy.

@SuezanneC: Good question! My off-the-cuff response would be, "the advantages of conducting peacemaking communications through a virtual world program, compared to email, text, and video chat, are... the same advantages that have US all spending so much darn time in Second Life versus only Gmail, Yahoo IM, Skype etc. anymore"

What are those advantages? To me they are scope and power. I love it when I rez a cube and hear that subsonic rumble. I love it when I fly and flip and twirl, or swishboom teleport to another region. Most of all I love doing projects with other people using all those cool new swishboom tools.

Maybe the power and scope thing is just another way of saying people can cooperate and produce visible results here quickly in this SL world together. And that goes a long way toward bonding.

Or.. another angle is that in this so-called Aquarian Age, the key theme is finding people of like minds to connect to. Yes email and chat and video and phone enable that.. but my gawd somehow the created animation avatar thing seems to be a whole new dimension of relating. Now THAT'S a mystery!

Now how the heck does any of THAT apply to public diplomacy? Heh.. it's one reason I think this contest is so intriguing. (And the other reasons are the $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 USD prizes lol).

I think the primary advantage is as follows one a game infused with the means for diplomacy can and will teach how to function in that manner and setting. Further as avitars can look like anything it suspends the obvious and allows us to relate to each other as people not as a specific ethnic or racial or national group affiliations. its allows us to break down barrier and walls