International Politics

International Politics

Humanities Course
Course Code	POLY
Year Opened	1985
Sites Offered	BRI, LOS
Previously Offered	CAR, CLN, GVA, JHU, KNE, SAR, STM, SUN

Course Description

From the CTY Catalog:

Why do states fight, and what makes them cooperate? World affairs in the 21st century have raised new questions about international politics and revisited complicated old ones. Where the field once primarily sought to understand the causes of war, scholars now debate the impacts of globalization, the relevance of sovereignty and the state, and the power of global norms in promoting international development and human rights. Through discussions, debates, simulations, and individual research, this course explores these and other complex problems in international affairs. By approaching issues from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, you and your classmates will learn to think critically about the world and the ways to comprehend and solve global dilemmas, applying social scientific methods and exploring case studies to better understand the systemic forces that shape societies and their relations on the international stage.

International Politics provides a basic overview of many of the problems in the world, such as hunger, genocide, and informational security. The course has been criticized or been given apathetically no consideration by different people considering its pacifist style of conflict resolution.

Class History

Carlisle

At CAR.05.1, many complaints were heard about the many useless geography sheets that students were required to complete after looking up large quantities of useless statistics. The same complaints were made next session, with the addition of a number of necessary poetry assignments.

In 2007, International Politics was taught at Carlisle by Dan Mumford and was TA'd by Taku Chakravarti. Taku inspired his own activity, called Taku appreciation. Dan, meanwhile, was in the Peace Corps in Africa and was an actor in an acclaimed World of Warcraft movie. Dan was frequently called D. Mums so as to differentiate between him and Dan Soltis (Diesel/D. Sol/D. Train/Dan). Dan was the RA for all of the guys in International Politics at Carlisle in 2008.1. D. Mums loves the elder god of chaos known as Cthulhu and you will grow to love Cthulhu by the end of the session.

At CAR.08.1, there were no more useless worksheets/poetry. The class was interesting to those who enjoyed history and politics. Many arguments tend to have many different sides with little difference between them, and those at either end of the side were usually considered wrong by everyone else. As the TA, Megan, said, "There is no black or white there, are only shades of gray." Some highlights included a game called Coalitions, a game about International Relations (2008.1 was the first year in which IP A and B failed the game completely, resulting in the destruction of the world, a kid named Nate vetoed the peace agreement resulting in utter destruction), reading/discussing the New York Times for the first two hours of the day (then discussing the book/other points the teacher wanted to make for the rest of the time (you read the book/various articles during study hall in the evening)), and the general awesomeness of the class.

At CAR 08.2, the reading/discussing of various NY Times articles resulted in one CTYer losing some of her faith in humanity, as well as other intense class ethical arguments.

At CAR.09.1, Mumford instructed and Cassie was the TA. The week and a half was highly memorable due to Race's inappropriate moments and Claire's un-PC comments. Most memorable of all was the discussion that sprung from an article in the NY Times about illegal immigration, which lasted over an hour and consisted of yelling and disintegrating friendships. Log rolling also proved to be a learning experience.

At CAR.09.2.POLY.A, Maria Vassilieva instructed and Kehan DeSousa was the TA. This dynamic duo consisted of a Georgetown professor and a knowledgeable coffee and tea loving TA. With the most amount of information squeezed into the smallest amount of time, they successfully kept their class interested in the subject. The day began with current events reading and discussion for an hour in the NYTimes, continued into a lecture, and ended with the afternoon class where projects were worked on and more studying was done. With a day to spare, there was an inter-class simulation where both classes broke into groups representing made up states. Within this simulation, a made-up terrorist organization called S.W.I.N.E F.L.U was admitted to the security council and nuked the world.

At CAR.10.2.POLY.A, Maria Vassilieva instructed and Jose Iriate was the TA. Both teachers were great instructors, and Jose's lecture was fast, fluid, and conveyed hard concepts efficiently. The class read the NY times and analyzed, and played several debates, including an incredibly unrealistic Isreali-Palestinian peace talk. The class also watched a horrifying documentary called Ghosts of Rwanda. At the end, the class made another simulation where another terrorist group called L.I.O. B.P. attacked the world. Turn that around and you get BP oil.

At CAR.12.1, Taku Chakravarti returned to Carlisle as Dan's TA once more. After telling the class (which happened to contain the current Emperor and Jesus, as well as the next year's Emperor) that his real name was not actually Taku, the mad hunt for Taku's true identity began. The class convinced their RAs to hold a Taku Appreciation activity. On Wednesday, the last activity period of the session, Taku Appreciation was held in which the students all created their own satchels, imitating the satchel Taku always carried around. At the end of the activity, Taku revealed his true identity to the students: Atish.

At CAR 13.1, Kevin Santos Flores joined forces with Dan and spent a lot of time sitting in the corner of the classroom, making wildly inappropriate jokes, and then laughing at his own jokes. Study hall was hard because the girls would always go on adventures in the library and laugh every time they made eye contact with Kevin. Apparently, according to sources, Kevin used to TA at LOS. The simulation was done with Interpol A and was tense, intense, and horrifying. Friendships were tested. Cthulhu continued his reign and his plush body was thrown around quite a bit. Dan's shirt pocket is the greatest invention known to man. Students had a lot of internal turmoil this session, so it was weird.

At CAR.14.1, Dan Mumford once again taught Poly B. Considered by some as the best year yet, Poly B had multiple 'important' students: Two Poetry Goddesses, one Jesus Non-Denominational Spiritual Figure, the Oldest Kid on Campus, the BAE, and the first two Imperators (although the latter is not always recognized.) Dan impressed the students with multiple simulations, modeling after the real-life events of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Gaza-Palestine conflict. Queen Pegi, the TA, was exceptional and offered valuable insight to the class. During the last Study Hall, Dan brought in his Scorpion lightsaber, wowing most of the class. Again, Cthulhu reigned supreme and the Talking Cthulhu solved many of the personal conflicts with a simple, "Hey! Who's got Cthulhu?!" With some brilliant blends with Poly A, 14.1 was a great class and was found to be important and relevant for many students.

At CAR 18.2, Interpol was again taught by Dan Mumford and TA'd by Tim, who has possibly finished his dissertation.

At CAR.19.1, Dan Mumford was again the instructor, along with Meg Frankenberger, the best TA.

Saratoga Springs

At SAR.05.2, Donald Rumsfeld was put on mock trial for war crimes. He was found not guilty.

At SAR.08.1, one student (also the biggest (both literally and metaphorically) douchebag of the class) discovered that Quake 3 is on the computer he's using, while at Wiecking computer lab. He fell into a destructive obsession over it. He sat on me for taking that computer once. I'm serious. He was also nicknamed "Doo-than the Han from Azerbaijan" in response to his constant racism and calling a fellow classmate a Han. The rest of the class retort by downloading Combat Arms, a free online FPS that his roommate (and one of his many enemies) pulled from an ad in a gaming magazine. Its site URL was kept secret. Also, the class was awesome. We saw Karl, the instructor, in a BBC documentary about the Azeri Orange Revolution (he was holding a camera and was "duly" chased by riot police for documenting the revolt as he ran around a corner.

At SAR.13.2, a paintbrush mysteriously appeared in the classroom, much to the bemusement of the class. It was taken home by Conor Thompson, who passed it on to a member of next year's Interpol class, in the hope that that student would do the same, and so on. The holder of the paintbrush from 2014-15 is Luke Farrell.

The SAR 14.1 Interpol class consisted of some of the most loving and smart people anyone could ever meet.

At SAR 16.1, there was a Star Wars crisis council. Asajj Ventress tried to murder Padme by melting her face, but it was unsuccessful.

SAR 16.2 consisted of compassionate, but sometimes disruptive students. During movies, Rupa and Ben would always hand out candy, even if they offered candy 20 times already that day. John wore a hijab made from a scarf during clothing-swap day. He then became the iconic Jihadi John. We also played fun games such as Geoguesser and another game where we got to nuke the world. During breaks, much of the class played Egg Inc., a game where you spawn chickens by holding down a button. Harambe became William's idol and the rest of the class followed. He must have been a followable guy because Lauren became obsessed with flipping bottles after he did so. Chloe was a strong proponent of Communism. She represented Russia during the class Syrian Civil War debate, which helped her cause. Radical Islam became the official religion of POLY SAR 16.2.

At SAR 18.1, there was a quote board with Christine as the Quote Board Keeper and Daisy as the Quote Scribe. The Quote Board was a magnificent being, with a new quote added every day. Quotes were voted on by the masses as Rupa (the instructor) and Esther (the TA) are supporters of democracy. Featuring such hits as "You can't leave the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church owns you," "Esther is our patron goddess," and "Coffee has enough calories to get me through the day." It also included savage remarks from Rupa, for she is a queen. "Quote offs" were often performed in the girls' dorm, where two girls would compete to name all the quotes on the Quote Board. The two main quote contributors were Jackson and Helen.

Here are a list of some more of the greatest quotes from the class. More will follow, but the Quote Scribe is too tired to add them all at this time:

• "Ricardo Retardo the Tree" -Jackson
• "The classroom is named 'No'"
• "Alien Ballet Students" -Rupa
• "She is the marker Wizard." -Sebastian
• "This marker shows promise." -Ashley
• "If this is just listening to Jackson on rewind, I didn't sign up for this." -Helen
• "We should ban Ashley form the coffee section."
• "I'm an actual squirrel hiding in a human body."-Helen
• "Alex the giraffe."
• "You forgot the buddy system! That's punishable by DEATH!"
• "It's GENERAL Amos. He's in the Classroom Corp and he's starting a micro nation."
• "I'm just gonna live on microwave potatoes and see how that turns out."
• "Don't you love the dictators you're raising!"
• "I'm a UNICORN cause I can be." -Ashley
• "I'm a chipmunk."-Christine
• "Copper-nickus."
• "Escargo is tiny sin bombs."
• "Five pounds of gummy bears."
• "Heads or tails, I pick Syria."
• "Nicky Nouse Klubhouse."-Maya
• "Their dictators are better at dictating."
• "You KANT HEGEL MARX."
• "Wasn't that when Satan was, like, a sexy bad boy?"
• "You don't become bougie; you are BORN bougie."
• "Please pay attention. Hitler is speaking." -Rupa
• "Hitler draws his eyebrows on."
• "Take it, hoe."
• "New theory of International Politics: Selective Racism."
• "He's a pedophile! I'm six!" -Ashley
• "No more drugs from Columbia."Only from Mexico! "No! American only!"
• "You're going to microwave Jackson?" -Rupa
• "We put our sacrifices on the desk."
• "Iran's a clingy ex-girlfriend."
• "Black belt in religion."
• "Love yourself. Love doughnuts. Love communism."
• "...pulled a Belgium." -Alex
• "The Nazi Death March." -Everyone about the first town trip
• "I'm going to do lady things in the shower." -Helen
• "I speak Thornton." -Jackson
• "They only murdered them once or twice." -Alex
• "Mong! Wong!"
• "Really, not really."
• "I will turn everyone Texan."
• "You came out of the womb with Led Zepplin stapled to your forehead."
• "You'll always be a redneck in our hearts."
• "Belgianese."
• "BS with nukes."
• "Yo, that squirrel be thicc." -Sebastian on an actual squirrel we saw outside, not about an actual human
• "Japan used bicycle. It's highly effective!"
• "It's like your local middle school drug dealer."
• "I know her hand like the back of my hand."
• "The Kurds can't have their own country; they can't even have their own chair!" -Rupa
• "ISIS would like to forfeit,

     "As long as our troops are given mercy, we will do whatever it takes to make up for our actions." -Sebastian

• "Of course I like dark. I am dark."
• "I've broken so many bones," -Esther "Doing what? Walking?" -Rupa
• "Let's not use it as an excuse for inaction; let's use it as an excuse for more action." -Jackson
• "All monuments are in France."
• "It's old, yellow, and Indian." "LIke me!" -Rupa
• "There's no atheist. You're just undecided." -Jackson
• "America is just More Violent Canada/ East Russia/ North Mexico."
• "This is my bucket, and I'm proud of it!" -Alex about his Vermonster Bucket Hat
• "Selective Jesus."
• "Don't tell me that a stiletto-wearing Thorton wouldn't be epic."
• "I'm 95% gummy, 2% water, and 3% stress." -Esther
• "Russia is going through a second puberty and they're not taking it well."
• "Fish espionage."
• "Oman? O-MAN! Yemen? YEAH-men!"
• "CTY stands for Cult for Troubled Youth."
• "Open your whatever."
• "My goal is a cupcake for everyone."-Ashley
• "Ashley, what do you want to be when you grow up?" "A hitman!"

The class also came up with a five-step plan to abuse foreign aid, which is as follows:

1. Commit human rights violations.
2. Appeal to rich Western country. ("Fix" it)
3. Don't fix ANYTHING.
4. Go to China. Ask them for roads.
5. Rise and repeat.

There was also a Syria simulation, in which SAR 18.1 scarred Esther by not following her moderating, dissolving into fits of giggles whenever the Syrian Arab Republic made eye contact with the Free Syrian Army. Most notably, the delegate of ISIS had started off the day making incoherent threats about the "golden sword of Allah" and ended the day by surrendering and asking for amnesty. This may have been because of the unanimous decision to bomb ISIS. This was featured on the Quote Board with, "Together we killed ISIS." The delegate of ISIS also scarred Esther by constantly interrupting, but that was technically in character.

SAR 18.1 always met for class at a tree named Ricardo. Ricardo became so awesome that he acquired an Instagram account with the help of Daisy, Helen, and other members of the class. He encourages you to follow @ricardothetree and to send in pictures you take with or of him. Ricardo will follow you back.

SAR 18.1 also assimilated into a cult around their TA, who was overqualified to be a TA. This cult was called "Esthercism." They perform ritual prayers to Esther in the middle of the Dining Hall in front of the TA table. Esther is known for being funny, nice, and a pretty great person. She inspired students with her stories of her college days, wherein there were many large quantities of caffeine consumed, and made Current Events discussions ten times more deep. She is a legend.

SAR 18.1 has been notified from their great goddess Esther that the quote board has indeed been passed down to SAR 18.2.

SAR 18.2 continued the tradition of the quote board, with Arjun being the unofficial Quote Scribe.

Following is a list of the quotes from the quote board, not in chronological order:

• "I HATE MORMONS" -Kate
• "CARE with a Christian twist" -Noah
• "Motion in the Ocean!" -Levi
• "I like the way your panda feels" -Ed
• "Rolling chairs are hype as hell" -Ed
• "Matrix = Immortality + Happiness"
• "I don't want to kiss a ginger" -Kate
• "This tape is honestly Empowering" -Levi
• "My ass is damp" -Noah
• "Kill a homeless person, get $30 million" -Ed
• "Alright, I'll bite. What's ligma?" -David Hogg
• "I don't want to hold your hand; let's do finger s***"
• "What's a 'personal intimate'?" -Arthur
• "ISIS doesn't giggle" -Rupa
• "I ate so much candy I cannot SEE a goddamn twix bar" -Esther
• "Of course, with European influence came oppression"
• "It's debatably stupid" -Ed
• "Animal magnetism"
• "Step up to the plate, Batman and Company. giggles You look like an arms dealer, I'm sorry"
• "Furthermore" -Arthur
• "Restricting order" -Ari
• "I'm not from china" -Arthur
• "MILITANT VEGANS"
• "Can we do an experiment? I wanna try being waterboarded" -Brooke
• "Nuclear fusion turned me on"
• "Sipping on grape juice"
• "Dun da da daaaa... the slave trade! silence... I shouldn't have said that" -Macon
• "Europe left the EU"
• "I LOST THE GAME"
• "This is what I copied and pasted" -Kate
• "Oil is Juicy" -Olivia
• "Are Noah and Olivia both missing at the same time again?" -Levi
• "My school is rad and groovy"
• "Boom boom pt 2: Desert Fox" -Olivia
• "exudes sex"
• "They had genocides so I sort of know what was going on" -Esther
• "There have been many very funny wars" -Rupa
• "Are you circumcised?" -Brooke
• "R u just jealousy Levi" -Kate

Breaks in SAR 18.2 often consisted of Frisbee, Spit, or Grass Orgies. In the first few days, Kate hit Arjun in the eye with a Frisbee, and he had a black eye for another week. No hard feelings, Kate. Indoor breaks also occasionally included watching videos of political SNL skits, John Oliver, or "Ben Shapiro MELTS Transgenderist Snowflake with PURE LOGIC".

SAR 18.2 renamed Ricardo the Tree to Kanye (She/Her/Hers). As of 2018/08/04, the Instagram has not been changed.

Esther, while not the subject of a cult in SAR 18.2, was still a legend. She gave a list of resources to the students at the end of the session. SAR 18.2 students were graced with her Iconic Domino's Pizza Order on the last Thursday: "Thick crust, barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce. A lot of barbecue sauce. 'As much barbecue sauce as you're legally allowed to give me I dare you.' Every cheese there is with extra cheese, maybe meat on half depending on who's with me but more cheese on the meat, a two liter coke and maybe another two liter coke depending on how I'm feeling."

Another big topic of discussion in SAR 18.2 was Esther's band. When she was 13-14, she was keyboardist for a four-member band of 20 year olds. She dyed her hair red, got a leather jacket stylized for her band (which she still owns and still fits her), left a note for her parents saying she would be out of the country, and went touring with her band across Europe. The name of this band is unknown, the only poster of it is under Esther's control, and the only known recordings were on Tuenti, a Spanish social media site which has since been shut down. If anyone has information on this, please contact a member of SAR 18.2 or edit below.

The subject of waterboarding came up a few times in SAR 18.2 after Brooke expressed her curiosity for the act. During morning class of the last Thursday, the class set up Brooke lying back with towels ready to be waterboarded, but then Esther and Rupa turned around, realized what was going on, and put an end to the shenanigans. However, the waterboarding did not end there. After Esther and Rupa were done explaining SPEs procedure during the last Thursday afternoon class, Brooke brought up that we could waterboard her while they were out of the classroom, to which Ed became very mad because she spoiled his plan. Regardless, they waterboarded each other when Esther and Rupa left the room. Brooke put a sweatshirt on, but Ed's wet shirt was obvious. The wet spot on the carpet of the classroom was badly covered up by some desks. Ed describes it as "It's like you try to inhale but pressure just builds in your chest until you start to die". He would do it again. Brooke only commented "7/10 would do again". RealCTY does not condone waterboarding in or outside of the classroom.

The last morning class of SAR 18.2, everyone was tired after staying up all night for Passionfruit. Arthur and Arjun fell asleep, Arjun in the middle of the floor, so the class turned off the lights and performed Transcendence around Arjun and squirted him with silly string when he woke up.

SAR 19.1 continued the absurdity started by the previous classes of the "Esther Era." We would like to express our hope that the Esther Era continues as she is the best TA and we're sorry we broke her for a few days after combining a couple countries.

The session was perhaps best summed up by the utter insanity created when the United States, Israel, and Russia formed one supernational federation, the AIR Federation (also known as the AIR Alliance). In many ways, the problems with the nuclearization simulation began when America, Israel, and Russia formed one country, a fact that shocked even students who had previously taken the class. Esther's immediate reaction to this development was “Would you need a minute to get off of whatever crack you’re on?” Another amusing occurrence happened when Maia played a video from PragerU, a conservative YouTube "university" (PragerU is in no way a university and is better described as conservative propaganda). This nearly made Ben and Isaac explode.

Following in 18.1's footsteps, a quote list was kept and maintained. The following is a list of thingssaid in International Politics at SAR 19.1. The quotes were collected by Ben. The chalkboard in the back of the room hosted many doodles and other musings, though it was not a formal quote board, like the previous year. While everyone contributed to the quote list, the most common student contributors were Ben, Jacob, Georgia, Arya, Amelie, and Issac. (Note from the scribe: I would attribute each quote to whoever said it, but I can't remember who said some quotes, and it feels wrong to only attribute some of them.)

• “I'm afraid of Doritos."
• “I didn't drown my hamster, I starved him.”
• “Nuclear weapons are the military equivalent of a Lego set.”
• “Can I shoot myself?!?”
• “You know where murder’s legal?” *points* “Antarctica!”
• “Best method of population control? Killing spree?”
• “Boats, bitches!”
• “Why is Wakanda not a superpower?”
• “‘Strawberry Fields’ is our national anthem!”
• “The name of our state is Thoti Aña.”
• “We kidnapped Rami Malek for the hacking.”
• “Al Gore is like, 1500 years old, right? That’s why he’s so smart.”
• “Ah, yes. The lost 11th plague of Egypt, French people.”
• “I see that you are in a very good mood, so I think it’s a perfect time to talk about communism.”
• “Please pay attention to Lenin, he’s a very important person.”
• “Fascism is someone who’s really into fashion.”
• “Let’s get back to Hitler, he is waiting for our attention.”
• “Heil Hickenlooper.”
• “The Takeda cavalry lives again!”
• “Were there Black Nazis?”
• “Would you like a human skin handbag? It has patterns on it!”
• “You can’t indict a meteor!”
• “Fun fact: Sandra Bullock is not a dog.”
• “The Great Satan! That’s us! USA! USA! USA! USA!”
• “I’m pretty sure Catherine the Great had a Minister of Flirtation.”
• “Moosealini is a moose fascist that rules over the Canadian north.”
• “Nothing turns me on more than ‘death to all Jews.’”
• “They’re not bombs, they’re freedom.”
• “#StanLoona, #StanAfghans.”
• “We have officially reached peak K-Pop capacity.”
• “Yes, Obama colonized Mozambique.”
• “What if every pirate was like the one from SpongeBob?”
• “Kids. Raving. In. Ontario.”
• “The terrorist organization of Feel Good Incorporated.”
• “Whoops! I did a Taliban!”
• “You stole my cow, give it back.”
• “Bongo bongo, I don’t want to leave the Congo.”
• “Isaac, your communism hurts my eyes.”
• “Are you really a fascist if you haven’t committed genocide?”
• “Go to sand gulag.”
• “No one likes the French, those surrender-monkeys.”
• “Starvation, cannibalism, anarchy, all that stuff.”
• “Stalin was HOT!”
• “*gasp* The plants are fascist!”
• “We’re learning about genocide, by practicing it!”
• “Are guns weapons of mass destruction?”
• “By genocide day, you’ll be rolling on the floor.”
• “Point blank, periodt.”
• “A timeline of everything going wrong in 2019.”
• “It’s more fun to bomb people than to like, talk about stuff.”
• “It’s Trump the strongest person in the US?” “No, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.” “I mean the most powerful.” “Still, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.”
• “If there’s one fat penguin, they’re all screwed.”
• “If you could pick one RA to blow up…”
• “Did Barack Obama colonize Mozambique or free it?”
• “Dolphins cannot work on land.”
• “Uncontrolled laughter is not an appropriate response to nuclear war.”
• “If you bomb or nuke anyone, let [Rupa] know.”
• “We’re not gonna nuke you, but you need to calm down.”
• “Please do not throw projectiles in a UN negotiating room.”
• “I’m getting nuked no matter what! Help!” “You’re getting naked no matter what?”
• “We can’t keep genocide waiting.”
• “Please don’t raise taxes, please, not again.”
• “10 minutes is too short for genocide.”
• “Pol Pot is a really dumb name.”
• “Rupa’s 8 stages of genocide, not to be practiced at home.”
• “Incognito mode doesn’t work for ISIS recruitment videos.”
• “ISIS is like, 4 people now.”
• “Esther’s 10 tips on how to become wanted by the Iranian police.”
• “There’s no escaping Amazon. Surrender!”
• “That’s! Not! What! The! Deep! State! Is!”
• “They held a conference underwater.” “So that’s what the deep state is!”
• “Wingdings is a way of life.”
• “That’s the difference between RAs and TAs. RAs run away from the bear, TAs run towards the bear.”
• “Guns and drugs and condoms and tissues, a recipe for a fun night.”
• “This has a surprisingly few number of dislikes for a CNN video.”
• “Jolly Ranchers spray makes me feel high as f**k.”
• “Greece was like, ‘I’m dying,’ and Spain was like, ‘I’m dying,’ and everyone in the world was unemployed, so you’re screwed.”
• “The world’s imploding, hello children, let’s learn about it.”
• “Malaria’s like, ‘There’s only room for one cowboy in this town.’”
• “The WHO’s slogan is ‘Who Cares?’”
• “How do they bring back Ebola, is it like, seasonal?” “Spring, summer, winter, fall, Ebola!”
• “Oh god, imagine Neo-Nazis armed with Ebola.”
• “Theresa May is like, half the Prime Minister, a quarter is this other guy, and the other quarter is mayhem.”
• “Just press a button and OOP! Anime tiddies mode!”
• “That’s not even fat Pikachu, it’s just wrong Pikachu.”
• “Some of them are using Rupa’s 8 steps [of genocide].” “And they’re not even paying me!”
• “You don’t see many Maori with Ebola.”

And finally, the final quote, that also happens to succinctly summarize this class... “Esther, you look confused by this generation."

19.2: Same old of Rupa being our hero, but here some traditions/fun memories:

• “Frisbee God” manspreading in front of the class
• The “Be Sleepin/ Be Awake” sign
• Screen Time
• Taki Taki Rupa
• Paper Airplanes
• Mozambique Civil War
• Shakira Shakira
• India Defecates Outdoors
• OverSimplified
• snaps hair elastics* kinky
• NO NUKES
• Soviet national anthem
• sharing airpods

22.1 Rupa is the best!! Classmates were Charlie, Meena, Spencer, Logan, WARREN, Angelina, Julia, Priya, Lila, and Gemma. Honorable mention: Henry from Persuasion and Propoganda who rolled in on his rolling chair and attempted to draw a world map while discussing the Russia/Ukraine comment. The TA was Barrie.

There was a formal debate between the Persuasion and Propoganda kids and the InterPol kids over whether capitalism was inherently bad (organized by our TAs because we had nothing else to do). Caulder (P&P) and Gemma (InterPol) represented. Gemma successfully argued that capitalism wasn't inherently bad, after which the aforementioned Henry threw wet paper towels at Gemma.

There is a nuclear bomb simulator online. During class we got to test it out. Gemma went first and immediately dropped the largest possible bomb on her hometown. Everyone else demanded a turn to destroy their hometowns. We then decided that InterPol 22.1 should NEVER be given control over nuclear bombs. I repeat: DO NOT GIVE INTERPOL KIDS NUCLEAR BOMBS.

For future reference, the squirrels (the animal kind) really like barbeque chicken pizza. This info is from Rupa.

Quotes: - "It's okay, if you knock me out I won't be able to present." Priya - "The French are not very great at fighting ... after Napolean died." Spencer - "Here are some bodies." Spencer - "Drug trafficking is like democracy. Everyone can join in." Rupa - I don't do geography. I said Singapore was in India the other day. My second choice was South Korea." Henry (of the failed world map)

Warren + backpack = love

"I'm glad the life expectancy is over 32, otherwise I'd be dead." Rupa

"When he's a ten but can't pronounce your name...instant zero. (Rupa giggles)

"Food is your main export...but you don't have any food." Charlie (In reference to Libertania. Charlie was representing Spartania but Libertaina is better).

"Don't fight the hype." Barrie

"He wasn't living on daddy's emerald mine, like Elon Musk." Charlie

"They're either boring or dead." Rupa

"This is InDoNeSiA" Warren

"I need suggestions for my favorite tools of war." - Spencer

"I AM GOD" Barrie

(To Spencer) "You don't believe people can have mohawks, you don't believe people can juggle, but you put your faith in Napoleon?" Rupa

"That's not my job to Google." Charlie, ABOUT HIS RESEARCH PRESENTATION

"Everyone has equal opportunity because Elon Musk was from South Africa." Spencer

A conversation
           Gemma: "Um, no."
         Spencer: "Um, no, why?"
           Gemma: "Um no."

"Slaves have a better life than homeless people." Bamph (fictional country)

"Here in Russia we're really self centered." Lila

"I am Kim-Jong-Un." Warren

Los Angeles

At LOS.09.1.POLY, David Fields instructed and William Hon was the TA. The former is an international traveler, and the latter was studying International Politics. Days included reading from the New York Times, their main textbook, and other books that had good supporting information. They also spent good amounts of time reading The Clash of Civilizations and playing the game of Diplomacy, which Will Wheaton and Courtni Addison won as Britain. Other activities included debates on international issues, mock Security Councils, and cultural simulations.

At LOS.13.2 POLY, the legendary infinite-lingual Dr. D (Soleiman Dias) and his fearless TA Sam led the class of 15 into three weeks of political chaos. Within the first week, the group had established themselves as a gynecocracy ("if a society led by women is a gynecocracy, what's a society led by men?" "just a cock-racy"). In an activity meant to find solutions to current world crises, a group proposed air-dropping loose condoms onto sub-Saharan Africa to slow the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In addition to morning newspaper readings and discussions of current events, there was also a fair number of movies: the class watched Tae Guk Gi, Hotel Rwanda, and Under the Same Moon during the session. Those 15 people were some of the funniest, smartest, most talented and diverse people at the session. They will all change the world.

At LOS.16.2 POLY, Marsha Pacheco instructed and Rachel Davis was the TA. One student, named Matthew, never showed up to class and was quietly forgotten. For most of the first week, the other 14 weren't sure what to call their instructor, leading to an awkward avoidance of names that finally gave way to the moniker Dr. Marsha. (Incidentally, by the third week, Dr. Marsha became convinced nobody knew her full name.) Most days in class fell into a regular schedule of reading the New York Times, listening to lectures, and debating current issues in the world. Originally, debates were informal; when a competition debater tried to add crossfire to the rounds, Interpol first grumbled and later rebelled. Crossfire was subsequently removed with little protest.

During one debate on whether China was the aggressor in the South China Sea, a boy arguing negative pointed out that the Philippines had paid for the judges that voted against China before immediately adding that China could have helped pay, but "they didn't want to." This statement was met with groans from his own team and laughter from everyone else.

The makeup of the class was diverse, with CTYers hailing from various parts of the U.S., China, Canada, and Thailand. The Canadian student's unabashed national pride frequently made its way into class, where he drew a trapezoidal Saskatchewan on the board and loudly argued that Canada had tied with the U.S. in the War of 1812. The Thailand (sometimes incorrectly said The Taiwan) became a mascot of sorts for 16.2 Interpol after one girl asserted, "Let's talk about The Thailand!" prior to a group presentation. Her whiteboard drawing of The Thailand remained on the board until it was heartlessly erased on the final Thursday, and it made it onto Interpol's Closing Ceremony poster.

This class wants to remind everyone to not be afraid of participating in the Spirit Days in class. While Dr. Marsha was confused and made some comments about days such as Drag Day, Goth Day, and Love Tape Day, the class was happy to explain the meaning and history behind the days to her and was sure to cover her and her name tag in Love Tape.

At LOS.23.1.POLY, Soleiman Dias taught and was assisted by a wonderful TA named Roger (Rogelio). The students were Patrick, Matthew, Destin, Kavi, Justin, Andrew, Luke, Josie, CC, Vita, Elaine, Hana, Janet, Sonia, Mia, and Hailey.

Patrick, a proud Minnesotan, had much to say about silliness, the rise of Fascist Italy, and his chats on Character AI. Matthew, a Hong Konger, and his thin-crusted Hong Kong pizza never failed to make the class laugh, even when it involved a rap battle dissing someone else in the class; he also started a hall-wide addiction to the terrible game, Conflict of Nations. Justin, a proud triple citizen of Indonesia, Taiwan, and the US, was an advocate of the completely fake UN Global Forces and always volunteered to present first, not even knowing what he was getting himself into. Andrew, a home-schooled quiet person, seemed to say, "I see," and, "What are you doing?!" a lot, considering he neither saw much or knew what he was doing. Luke, a Korean living in Japan, spoke non-fluent versions of both languages and was a soccer player. CC, whose pronouns were, "U. S. A! Rawr!!", seemed to have a thing for high-fives from Andrew, and kept on insisting that Matthew should have shut up whenever he tried to reiterate a rap verse. Vita, a Canadian, had way too much fun insulting America and blessing everyone with her amazing fashion sense. (She dressed like an off-brand Lana del Rey.) Elaine, a knowledgeable student, received the most points out of anyone in class, as well as scored the highest on the pre-test with a 27/30 (That's crazy bruv). Janet, for a Taiwanese person, seemed to know a lot about the Communist Party of China and Xi Jinping, and also seems to be a tiger mom in the making. Sonia, the youngest out of the 16 of us, prevented us from watching the PG-13 Hotel Rwanda, and instead we got to watch a gruesome Youtube documentary with real pictures of the subject instead. Hana was a young TV/movie star and let us skip one day of presenting since she had a Barbie photo shoot (she got bangs too, which was really funny). Hailey was a ballet dancer, so she had no problem relating to “Mao’s Last Dancer”, which was surprisingly about a ballet dancer. Mia was in a different hall from the rest of the girls in this class, but made friends with all of them. Kavi and Destin were inseparable, although Destin was much more reasonable (Kavi had some… interesting opinions on certain topics.) Finally, nothing could be said about Josie because she is unimportant to the class and made no changes.

One of the projects was to create a slideshow presentation on a G20 country, in which only one had beautiful transitions (USA, duh). Declining birth rates in several of the mentioned countries led to an interesting discussion, in which Kavi had a rather strange suggestion involving Haitian "birthingwomen" of various ages.

We also had to create an NGO, in which 4 were made: SRIBS (Suicide Rates in the Baltic States), ICAT (International Coalition for the Assistance with Trauma), Education Commandos, and WAGE (Women's (yes the apostrophe was placed there) Association for Gender Equality). Education Commandos won out, although it wasn't anything to do with the length of its name. It was simply the best one.

On the second-to-last day, we had a model United Nations summit surrounding the Syrian War and the refugee crisis. Both proposals passed, although Italy, South Africa, China, and Russia may have botched some of their comments. The United States representative loved to carry his three flags of his beautiful country, which he loved (he did), everywhere he went. He would later give away one of his precious flags to the representative of the Republic of Indonesia, who he liked since he saw her at the first dance.

In the last two days, Mr. Dias hit us with the final project we had no time for: to create a perfect government. Four nations were created: Nova Roma, República Baleares, People's Republic of Xanadu, and Kavi's Republic of Chona. Nova Roma, a union between Italy, France, and Switzerland, seemed to have a traditional unicameral parliament and great social welfare and education standards. Its capital was Geneva, which I'm sure's mountainous terrain wouldn't make it difficult to govern from. República Baleares was established in the Balearic islands, although Patrick seemed to have earth-bending abilities to create land in between them. Its system of government gave most power to the ministries, which each had a legislative branch filled with experts on the ministerial subject, judicial branch, and also involved a Control Ministry. Xanadu, a country in Eritrea and Djibouti, was a communist state with special corporate zones, and liked to masquerade as a socialist democracy. Kavi's Republic of Chona (a play on words of the last name of another group member), despite the name, was not controlled by Kavi. Instead of an authoritarian or monarchist like he wanted, he was granted a democratic republic, which other group members referred to as New Belgium. Despite its name, the country was located in Old Belgium and focused on the profitable industries of chocolate and waffles.

The students (apparently and allegedly) worked hard to curate a “quotes page,” which included phrases such as: “That’s crazy, bro!” “Chairman Mao is a furry”

There were also a lot of Swifties in the class. CC, Hailey, Hana, Luke, and Vita were all fans of Taylor Swift.

Quotes:

"Bro, if he faints, it's on you!" - Josie

"That's hella crazy, bruv!" - CC

"Emotional oriental music." - a comment on subtitles during a screening of Mao's Last Dancer

"Wanna dance?" - a man with no rizz on the last dance (he pulled her)

"I am going to use the " - when referring to the (i must repeat, fake and completely jokingly) unregistered firearm brought by Andrew

"I urge the representative from South Africa to keep his patience. - Justin, the United States representative

Baltimore

At JHU.16.2, International Politics was taught by Dr. Jason Xidias, who had an unidentifiable accent. It was TA'd by Harrison Lee, a wasian 21-year-old from the University of Maryland who always wore the same three sweatshirts and loved hockey. Harrison also has seen a lot of movies and has some sort of criticism to offer about most everything. He was pretty chill and created fun simulations during study hall, including Fireside Chats, Nuclear Baseball, chaotic resolution writing, and more. A student named Eshan offered comic relief by giving ridiculous statements in order to uphold his side of liberalism, or realism ("Is communism an issue? No"). The only times of conflict concerning Harrison were when he let some cuss words slip and when he became angry due to the ceaseless Borat jokes the boys in the class would make. (Borat is an R-rated movie that boys in JB's hall kept trying to watch, to the point where JB was going through their search history.) CTYers in Interpol dreaded reading twenty-page articles almost every day that took, on average, 1.5 hours each, due to Harrison's verbal summaries and mini discussions of each paragraph, and one student (Noah) and his ceaseless questions. On the last day, the movie Bridge of Spies was viewed.

All in all, the TA and professor were very knowledgeable and friendly, but if one is considering this class, you need to be interested in the subject. If you're about to take it or are taking it now and are not interested, you're in for a rough three weeks. That is, unless you get a phenomenal teacher.