Ministry of Defense De kirmeense kwestie

The Ministry of Defense their role is changing. Conflicts are becoming increasingly complex. In our globalizing world, they affect Dutch interests in a variety of ways. Conflict prevention is about responding to signals early, thereby creating a more accurate view of conflict situations while maintaining the broadest possible trading perspectives.

Our collaborative partners in Defense’s Conflict Prevention Team wanted to acquaint their colleagues with this new way of looking at conflicts. Several interventions were developed to achieve this. One such intervention was a game called The Kirmenian Issue. In this game, players are challenged to act preventatively to a developing conflict situation. The game’s goal was to create an interactive, first encounter with conflict prevention. After playing the game, players eager to learn more were given the option of experiencing other interventions created by the Conflict Prevention Team.

n co-creation with the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense and Utrecht University, we developed a substantive game with a game time of around twenty minutes. A fictional conflict, brought to life using audio, video, and images, unfolds during the game. Players can act to enhance or diminish their influence. Influence gained empowers them to act proactively to prevent the conflict’s escalation.

The game was developed as a Progressive Web App (PWA) for smartphones. We used a React frontend for this. The game was equipped with a CMS, allowing the easy modification of its content.The