WSC 2025 - If at First you Fall, Try Again

Another Rome

Rasputin may be the most famous Russian monk, but he wasn’t the first to opine on geopolitical affairs. In the 16th century, his distant (and also lushly-bearded) predecessor Filofei proposed (in letters to a young prince named Vassilij) that Russia could be the third Rome. Consider what he meant then and what the implications of his suggestion might be today, then discuss with your team: could there be another Rome in our own era, and would it be good for the world if there were? Would Greenland be part of it? Be sure to explore the following concepts:

• unipolarity vs. multipolarity | core vs. periphery | great vs. small powers

• controlling vs. client state | soft vs. hard power | foreign assistance

Second chances at imperial grandeur

Rome isn’t the only empire that keeps popping back up. Like certain movie franchises, a great empire can only fall once, but it can be revived—usually unsuccessfully—many times. Study the history of second chances at imperial grandeur. What were they trying to emulate or continue, and how close did they come to succeeding? Did any last longer than the regimes they sought to restart?

• Neo-Assyrian Empire | Song Dynasty | Byzantine Empire

• Carolingian Empire | Ottonian dynasty | Meiji Restoration

• Neo-Sovietism

Neo Assyrian Empire

• To CONTINUE traditions, (strong centralized authority, military campaigns, and the promotion of art and literature)

Success – Highly successful

• Strong military force

• Centralized bureaucracy, good tax collection

• Cultural advancement 

Time period

• One of the longest lasting iterations, (several centuries) 

Song Dynasty

• sought to continue the cultural and administrative achievements of previous dynasties, focusing on Confucian ideals and civil service

• Innovations like gunpowder

• Achieved economic growth

Time period

• Lastde over 3 centuries

• Fell to Mongol invasions

Byzantine Empire

• Restored Roman territories successfully

• Preserved and transformed Roman legacy

• Eventual decline

Time period

• Lasted a thousand years

Carolingian Empire

• Restored glory of Roman Empire by promoting Christianity and culture 

• Under Charlemagne

• Empire faced fragmentations after Charlegmagne’s death due to internal divisions, splitted into 3 parts

Time period

• Only lasted a few decades

Ottonian Dynasty

• restore the glory of the Carolingian Empire in what is now Germany and parts of Italy

• Ottos (people supporting Otto I) aimed to revive the unity and authority of the Holy Roman Empire

• Significant territorial expansion 

• Lasted until 1024, but its legacy still continued

Meiji Restoration

• Period in Japan that sought to restore imperial power and modernize the nation

• Under Meiji leaders who aimred to emulate western influence 

• Japan rapidly industrialized and became significant in global power

Time period

• Lasted until 1912, Japan continued to industrialize until its defeat in World War II in 1945
  

• Neo-Sovietism

• Political movements in Russia that sought to revive the Soiviet Union’s legacy and influence.

• Centralized, strong state control

• Continues to shape Russia’s identity 

Reconstruction - a continuation or something new? 

Destroyed buildings can also have second leases on life. Consider the following examples, then discuss with your team: is a reconstruction of a building a continuation or something altogether new?

• Bibliotheca Alexandrina | White House | Notre Dame | Basilica of Saint Paul

• Babylon | Shuri Castle | Yellow Crane Tower | Stonehenge | Shakespeare's Globe

Bibliotheca Alexandrina 

• OLD:

• Originally an Ancient library containing scrolls and texts

• Destruction from wars

• NEW:

• Reconstructed in 2022, architecture of the building became more modern, with a completely different design

White house 

• Official residence and workplace for the US president

• OLD:

• Destruction: British set fire to the White House

• NEW:

• Design kept consistent/mainly similar

Notre Dame

• Originally built to be a religious site in France

• OLD

• 2019 fire damaged the building

• Gothic architecture

• NEW

• Restored to resemble its original form

Basilica of Saint Paul

• OLD

• Fire of 1823 destroyed much of the building

• Commissioned by Emperor Constantine over the burial site of Saint Paul.

• Served as a site for worship and honor Saint Paul

• NEW

• Structure and design remained similar 

• Some layout was modified to improve accessibility 

Babylon

• OLD

• Ancient city in ancient Mesopotamia, Iraq

• Destruction: conquests and invasions, natural disasters

• NEW

• Aimed to preserve ancient runes instead of recreation the city

Shuri Castle

• OLD

• Royal palace of the Ryuku kingdom in Okinawa, Japan

• Heavily damaged in World War II

• NEW

• Rebuilt in 1992

• New facilities were added

• Most of its design was kept the same

Yellow Crane Tower

• OLD

• Destroyed and rebuilt multiple times due to war and natural disasters

• Provides good views

• In Wuhan, China

• One of the four great towers of China

• NEW

• Modern reconstruction based on historical designs

• Tourism

Stonehenge

• In Salisbury Plain, England

• 4000-5000 years old 

• Some rocks eroded, causing the structure to become unstable

• Wasn’t reconstructed

• Efforts were made to ensure the structure’s stability

• Multiple theories of why it was built

Shakespeare’s Globe 

• OLD

• original Globe was destroyed by fire in 1613 during a performance when a cannon misfired

• rebuilt the following year but closed by the Puritans in 1642 and demolished in 1644.

• NEW

• Relocated a bit further from original site

• Completely rebuilt, with design still similar

What profession should we entrust to restart a great civilization?

In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, the great Galactic Empire is falling. Thirty thousand years of darkness and ruin await—even Palpatine couldn’t have lived that long—until a man who can predict the future using math comes up with a weird plan: a colony of librarians who, if left alone on the fringe of the known universe to write a great encyclopedia, could shorten the Dark Ages to a “mere” thousand years. Discuss with your team: would librarians be a good choice of profession for those entrusted to restart a great civilization? If not librarians, then who? And how much do you think math—and big data—can and should be used to predict the future?

Dark Ages

• Early Middle Ages, economic, intellectual, and cultural decline.

POSITIVE

Librarians →  organizing, categorizing, and preserving information

• Highly knowledgeable, read many books 

• Good access to information, know their way around the library 

NEGATIVE 

• May not possess all skills neccessary to restart a great civilization

• EG social skills, politics etc

Other roles: 

Historians

Scientists

Engineers

Math and big data in predicting the future

• Using math and big data can analyze and notice trends 

• Can use automated systems to do this and make decisions accordingly

• Not entirely reliable as the future is uncertain and these patterns may not always repeat

Brands brought back to sell new products

Sometime in 2025, a dead airline will return to the skies. A private company is planning to de-extinct the once-legendary airline brand Pan Am for some very expensive charter flights, with hints of bringing it back in a bigger fashion down the line. And, speaking of fashion, Pan Am has already been revived as a South Korean clothing brand. Consider the examples below of other brand names that have been brought back from the dead to sell new products and services–even if they are unconnected to the companies that spawned them. Discuss with your team: is this kind of branding dishonest, and what derelict brands or companies would you want to reintroduce–and in what forms?

• RCA | Westinghouse | Polaroid | RadioShack

• Gateway | Nokia | Sansui | Eastern Air Lines

Return of Pan Am

Original Pan An

• Higher class airline travel

• Bankrupt in 1991 due to competition

Revival

• Centurion travel will use the brand logo of Pan An

• Host a nostalgic transatlantic excursion

Excursion

• Uses a luxurious boeing 757

• small aircraft — only 50 business class seats                                                                                      boeing 757

• Trip: New York → Bermuda → Portugal → France

• Tickets for the two-week odyssey cost $65,500 for a single person

Pan Am as a Korean Clothing brand

• Reimagined as a clothing brand by SJ Group

• “Designed for both fashion and functionality”

• Plans to open 13 stores in the country

Other brand names brought back from the dead to sell new products

RCA

• Used to be a major American electronics company

• Reacquired by General Electric in 1986

• Took over assets of United Wireless Telegraph Company

• Dominant radio communications company 

Westinghouse

• one of the world's largest nuclear services businesses 

• bankruptcy

• Acquired by Cameco and Brookfield in 2018

  • Cameco owns a 49% interest and Brookfield owns the remaining 51% 

• Currently sells technology, fuel for nuclear power plants

Polaroid

• Instant film

• Became less popular in 2008

• Impossible Project to save the last Polaroid factory

• Rebranded Polaroid Originals in 2017, and eventually as Polaroid in 2020

RadioShack

• In 2023, Unicomer acquired the RadioShack brand and intellectual property for the U.S.

Why do vintage products become popular again?

Could 3.5 inch floppy discs be next? (They do make good coasters.) From audio cassettes to instant cameras, many vintage technologies are enjoying a resurgence today, often driven by viral online trends that celebrate their limitations. Discuss with your team: why do some products and brands become popular again after gathering dust for so long? When do you prefer something older and (technically) worse to something newer and (technically) better?

• disposable cameras | handheld gaming devices | vinyl | film

• shortwave radio | AM radio | pager | magnetic tape storage | physical media

Vintage Technologies Enjoying a Resurge

The ‘obsolete’ cassette – AUDIO CASSETTES

• A fun way to listen to music from your favorite artist

• No way of skipping tracks  — listen from the start to finish

• Noisy and tactile controls

• Return of 90s music

• Personal preference: some people like how the song sounds coming from an audio cassette, some focus better on the song

Instant Cameras — POLAROIDS

• Bankrupt in 2001 due to the introduction of digital cameras, but making their way back into mainstream

Why?

• Physical photo is more meaningful and memorable

• Allure of imperfection

• Trend among younger people

• Photo is more precious as you can take multiple with a digital cam

• Nostalgia, convince themselves they’re still in the 80s

• New methods of self expression

• GenZ may be willing to pay higher prices

DIGITAL CAMERAS

• Reminds people of their childhood, and simpler times

• Vintage

• Blurry and imperfect —Looks like memories, how we remember things

• Authenticity of photos

DISPOSABLE CAMERAS

Simple camera that is used only once, film is extracted 

• Fun and nostalgic

• More authentic

HANDHELD GAMING DEVICES

• Enhanced gameplay

• More immersive experience

• Better controls

VINYL

A disk-like record player

• More affordable

• Better sounds

• Tactile experiences

FILM

A sheet of plastic for recording visual scenes

• Nostalgia, Aesthetics

• Tactile and physical object

• Trends 

• Reasons are Similar to instant cameras

SHORTWAVE RADIO

A type of radio broadcasting

• Vintage and retro look

AM RADIO

A type of radio broadcasting

• Nostalgia and vintage looks

PAGER

A small wireless device that receives and displays messages

• Very simple communication

• Small and handy

• Long battery life

MAGNETIC TAPE STORAGE

Method of storing digital information on magnet tape

• Durable 

• Can store large amounts of data

• Secure

• Sustainable

PHYSICAL MEDIA

Tangible ways of storing information

EG

1. Vinyl

2. Audio Cassettes

3. Film Photography

4. Floppy Disks

5. Magnetic Tape storage

Is old music killing new music?

De-extinction isn’t just for passenger pigeons, bankrupt brand names, and outdated technologies. Artistic and musical can be brought back, sometimes unsuccessfully—and sometimes, perhaps, too successfully. Discuss with your team: is it true that old music is killing new music?

Old Music Killing New Music

• Audience is embracing hits of decades past instead

  • Old songs represent 70% of the US market

  • Dead musicians coming back to life in virtual form

• Less people watching the Grammys

• People losing interest in new music due to the release of lousy New songs, “music used to be so much better”

  • Why? 

  • Fear of copyright lawsuits in the industry —being sued for “copying” a melody

  • Musicians face legal issues

  • People have lost confidence in new music

  • Institutional failure to discover and nurture music