NSA Response

"Prince Saud al-Faisal, I have seen you really evolve over the course of this simulation. Most recently, I was very impressed by your ability to leverage your oil production in your favor. You really developed the idea and expressed it in a very formal professional matter. I was impressed that you took such a complex idea and sythesized it into something that everyone in the simulation could understand. Additionally, it made a very powerful impact on the situation at hand."


I honestly feel as though this reflection is quite off. Yes, I played a major role in *trying* to use leverage on the US, however, they were the most adamant team in the simulation. I also don't agree that I "evolved" throughout the last few months. My activity in the press was only near the end because there was no need to bring large issues public before the US and Israel attacked us. My actions were true to what a reasonable diplomat would have done. I was also not noted for the large array of press releases and action forms that I had worked on. My actions behind the scenes there and in comments on other newsflashes and updates were a large part of what I spent my time doing. 


To my dissatisfaction, our NSAs and Game Mentor did not help our case. As an Arab country, we were quickly deemed as untrustworthy by many larger, more powerful countries such as the US and France. It is too bad that these countries did not understand their relationship with us, as if they had it would have lead to a much more meaningful simulation. On top of that, our NSA and Game Mentor response on action forms and press releases were very, very slow and our activity was stalled because of it. What really bothered me was that our master plan to invade Jerusalem, that took much collaboration with other Arab countries on our side, was completely disregarded on the last day therefore leaving the simulation with no climatic ending. At one point, I asked the NSA to talk to the US for me to remind them that we are strong allies, the NSA said that I had to remind them of that, though the US only thought we were scheming against them. I also asked the Game Mentor to allow us to have private communications with Marwin Barghouti as we heard he was in Saudi Arabia. They simply told us that we could do that by creating an email-- he was not on our lists. After informing them of this dilemma, they did not reply. 


Though a very enjoyable experience, I feel as though some of the other countries needed to know more about their countries ties with Arab nations and that our NSAs and Game Mentor should have been more helpful. I honestly feel as though they signed in to do something maybe once every four or five days.