Press game: How a professor of the state of Boise uses video games to explain international relationships

Michael Allen, Professor and Lead of the Political Science program at Boise State, recently published a new book entitled “The Gamer's Guide to International Relations”. The book uses video games in the popular mass to explain international relationship concepts. In the book, everyone strives to use games like League of Legends and Minecraft to show that ideas that have been learned in video games can convey an understanding of global politics.

“I enjoy competitive games as a hobby and games from video, board, role-playing, card and miniature games. Likewise, I use games and simulations in my class for international relationships, so that I should use one of my hobbies that some estimate that half of the world's population is noted as an instrument for teaching international relationships for a while In my head, ”said everyone about how he formulated the idea for the book.

The book focuses on various genres games. Through archetypes such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Civilization and Fortnite, every game facilitates a better understanding of theories such as realism, liberalism, constructivism and issues such as monetary politics, civil war or global health policy.

“Other books have used things like zombies, science fiction or Harry Potter to think about international relationships, but there is currently no other book about the insertion of games to understand international relationships,” said Allen. “The gaming industry is an entertainment industry that is worth more than the film and music industry. It is more popular than what our stereotype of a player would show 30 years ago. “

In its autumn 2025 Pols 208 class, World Politics will use everyone through games as a teaching tool and help the students to unpack complex concepts in comparative politics and international relationships.