Description
Greater imagination arises from a greater sense of empathy. Virtual Reality (VR)—an ultimate empathy machine—can be a practical starting point for nurturing such a sense. However, in stark contrast to the increasing usage of VR technology in other social science realms, such as tourism and military training studies, its use in international relations (IR) is curiously absent. The same holds true for IR pedagogy. In the era of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), IR must develop suitable measures and pedagogies regarding spatial computing, ranging from modality to affordance. VR offers a unique platform to create immersive simulations of global scenarios, allowing policymakers, scholars, and even ordinary people—who should be the principal agents of vernacular security—to experience diverse geopolitical realities firsthand. In addressing this scenario, this analysis first conducts a stocktaking of current IR-VR literature and its possible linkages. It then focuses on nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula by examining how VR can contribute to fostering IR literacy (in this case, security literacy) in our society. In doing so, the paper provides an arena in which practitioners, theorists, students, and laypeople can engage in more imaginative, innovative, and collaborative problem-identification and problem-solving processes in IR thinking.
