Inquiry Simulation 2022: Problems Without Passports

Inquiry is a global issues simulation program for high school students developed by EPIIC. Inquiry provides a unique opportunity for high school students from across the country to participate in a weekend-long intellectual and challenging simulation centered on a pertinent international or domestic issue. Inquiry creates a forum for young students to engage deeply with compelling issues through intensive study, role-play, and mentorship by Institute students studying the topic in-depth. Inquiry also organizes a yearly investigative trip, typically during the winter intersession, to the country or region of interest. The Inquiry simulation and trip prepare students for global citizenship and develop leadership skills by emphasizing a cooperative approach to achieving progress on complex problems. In the past 20 years, more than 4,800 high school students and 750 Tufts students have participated in the program.

This year's topic is Problems Without Passports. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatized what Kofi Annan called “Problems Without Passports” and the inadequacy of global governance mechanisms. Despite many challenges, globalization continues to be the overriding reality shaping international relations in the 21st century. Technological innovations now ensure that events in any part of the world are not only instantly reported but can have immediate and tangible effects on the lives of people everywhere. In this era, it is inevitable that the major problems facing humanity are global – from pandemics to terrorism, from climate change to proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, from systemic racism to drugs and organized crime, from migration to violent extremism. These global issues are beyond the capacity of any country, however big or powerful, to solve by itself. Globalization has also produced not only linkage between different parts of the world but closer linkage between different issues. This is an additional challenge for many governments and international institutions which are highly compartmentalized into separate, issue-specific agencies, with little capacity for strategic coordination of goals, and still less of activities. Global cooperation is vital to solve “Problems Without Passports."