Analysis of the Sustainability of Decisions Made in the Simulation Game Strategem

Despite the wide acceptance of sustainable development goals and indicators there is no universal sustainable development strategy or roadmap. We chose simulation game Strategem as a model of economy with full information to identify the relationship between possible development strategies and indicators of sustainable development. The game is developed by the team led by Dennis Meadows for training managers and students. Game is based on the system-dynamic model and reflects the relationship between the key sectors of the economy. The participants of the game are the Cabinet of Ministers, whose goal is to lead the country to sustainable development. In 1992, the game was translated by the staff of the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University and adapted for teaching purposes. In this study, we analyzed the results of 145 countries, identified the sustainable development paths and indicators of its achievement. We found that the key factors of sustainability are the national income, the sustainability index, the standard of living, the resource efficiency and the population. We conclude that the lack of sustainability is not a consequence of underdevelopment or poverty, but rather the result of imbalanced or inefficient resources usage.

1. Kryukov. M.M. Imitatsionnaya igra strategema-1: analiz rezultatov provedeniya na baze balansovoy modeli [Imitation game stratagem-1: analysis of the results based on the balance model], Vestnik Chuvashskogo universiteta [Bulletin of the Chuvash University], 2008, no. 3, pp. 398–410 (In Russian).

2. Kryukov. M. M. Ekologo-ekonomicheskoye igrovoye imitatsionnoye modelirovaniye v nauke i obrazovanii [Ecological and economic game simulation in science and education]. M.: TEIS, 2009, 199 p. (In Russian).

3. Brundtland G.H. Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Geneva, UN-Dokument A/42/427, 1987. Available at: http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-ov.htm

4. Meadows D.L. World3 and Strategem: History, Goals, Assumption, Implications, Integrated Global Models of Sustainable Development Vol. 1. EOLSS Publisher, UNESCO, 2009, pp. 104-123.

5. Meadows D.L., Biesiot W., Benders R.M.J., et al. STRATAGEM. A personal computer-based management training game on energy-environment interactions. Version 4.0, Groningen, IVEM research report nr. 105, 2000.

6. Pedregosa F., Varoquaux G., Gramfortet A. et al. Scikit-learn: Machine Learning in Python, JMLR, 2011, no. 12, pp. 2825–2830.

7. Sterman J.D., Meadows D. STRATAGEM-2: A Microcomputer Simulation Game of the Kondratiev Cycle, Simulation & Games, 1985, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 174–202. doi:10.1177/0037550085162006.