TGS Model UN
Model UN, what is it anyway?
How is a Model UN actually run?
What will we be debating?
Getting into the Role
Global Perspectives
How do I turn this into a resolution?
What is going to happen when we run Model UN?
Challenges and Policy Considerations
Resources for Research
Resources
for Research Topics
Model UN
Parliamentary Cheat Sheet
For more information see
Scott Perry, he is one of the writing instructors.
Model UN, what is it anyway?
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As the name implies, the Model UN models what goes on at
the United Nations. The main objective is to learn the complexities
of global governance through role-play as UN Member States.
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Students should become aware of the United Nations, its
mission, its successes, and its failures in order to understand how
these factors will carry over into the Model United Nations.
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The links below will help you understand the challenge
inherent in the organization.
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Please keep in mind you will be role-playing the UN
Security Council (UNSC).
- Composed of 15 members, five of which (US, UK, Russian
Federation, China, France) are permanent members and have veto
power.
- To pass a UNSC resolution, it takes nine (9) votes and the five
permanent members must all agree to the resolution. If one of the
five permanent members vetoes the resolution, it is destroyed.
Naturally, this was much more of an issue during the Cold War than
it is now, as Russia and the U.S. would often use this veto power to
create UNSC insolvency.
- The UNSC is run by a President who presides for a month. The United
States holds this position for the month of June, so the United
States will be running our UNSC.
- The UNSC is designed to uphold the peace. Any issue that could
cause strife in the world is up for review by the UNSC. If fighting
breaks out in an area, the UNSC will first try to mitigate peace,
but the UNSC can also use economic sanctions and military action
(Peacekeeping missions) to uphold the peace.
- Although other UN bodies can "make suggestions" for states to
follow, the UNSC can pass resolutions that member states ore obliged
to follow.
- However, since there is no real global police, and UNSC resolutions
can be halted with a single veto, states with power really do not
have to follow these obligations either.
- Since there is no world government, stats agree to follow these
rules and obligations, but they can back out of them when it serves
state interests. Weaker states can be strong armed into following
these rules and obligations, but for states with more power, it
really is a game of "what can you get away with." However, most
states do follow these rules or laws just because it makes it easier
on everyone.
- One critique of the UN is that the powerful states use it to control
weaker states and the states with the most buy in to the system
really have little to no power. Moreover, stronger states may or
may not see the UN or even the UNSC as a political body they want to
go through, as unilateral action may be more in that state's
interest.
How is a Model UN actually Run?
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Keep in mind Model UN teams prepare
for a year and then go to completion. What we are running is
designed to fit within the three weeks we have to pull this
together. Naturally, some of this will cross over easier for those
of you who debate.
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If you have done Student Congress as a
TFA or NFL event, you have a leg up here. Think of the UNSC as a
Student Congress with the President organizing the parliamentary
debate.
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Model UN can follow the UN procedures
or Robert's Rules of Order. We will be using Robert's Rules of
Order.
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Below you will find a PowerPoint for
Robert's Rules of Order, which will show you how to carry out
motions and two cheat sheets.
OK. So, I get the organizational structure and how we will be
debating as the UNSC, but I am not sure on what we will be debating?
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This is where you will stretch your GT abilities and make
connections between the scientific and the political.
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Remember that the UNSC deals with crisis that could lead to war, and
it can mediate states in conflict, encourage them to find peaceful
resolutions to their conflict through diplomacy or it can encourage
them through the strong arm of economic sanctions or UN
Peacekeeping.
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If you look at the topics and think of how is this leading to
conflict that is causing war or could cause war, you will be on the
right step.
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Bother a CX debater at this point. CX Debate trains people to take
practically any subject and tie it back into warfare. They should be
able to guide you into creating a scenario for UNSC intervention.
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For example, climate change is an issue that affects everyone in the
world; however, certain states cause more pollution than other
states. After researching climate change, I would research China's
economy and the amount of pollutants they produce. Naturally, China
will not want to adapt its industry procedures because it is not in
its immediate economic interest. Moreover, China is trying to become
a major world economic power (assuming it is not one already) and
anything that will slow it down is not in its interest. As a member
of the UNSC, you may decide that the threats caused by climate
change justify a global security threat and your resolution can
focus on placing economic sanctions on China until it finds cleaner
ways to run its industry. Please keep in mind China has veto power!
How will you get around this? That is the nature of politics and
diplomacy.
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The best examples are past UNSC resolutions; see the link below for
examples. Just remember, the UNSC deals with global crisis and is
supposed to be the one who keeps the peace.
Getting into the Role: States in a
Self-Help World
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No matter what idealist may want to
believe, it is really is a self-help world out there. By that, I
mean that states have to help themselves, ultimately.
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There is no world government, there
are no world police, and by now, you have probably got that lesson
burned into your head. States only have to do what they are forced
to do by other states. If you are the most powerful state, you do
not have to do what others say, unless they gang up on you.
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By now, you should have researched
your state and found what your state's interest is in relation to
the topics at hand. If you need some help, ask the UNT Librarians to
direct you toward Culture Grams, which will provide you with a
background on your state.
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Go to the library's databases and do
some searches. Academic Search Premier is not a bad place to start.
Go into advanced search and play around with search terms. For
example, in advanced search type in your issue and in the line below
it, type your state's name. I hope that you will come up with some
hits right away.
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Also, check out LexisNexis. You will
find better hits with this than Academic Search Premier, but it has
specific search terms that can be problematic to learn. Once you
have the search terms down, this will be your best friend.
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Databases = Good. Google = Bad. Google
will lead to many things, but good research usually is not it. Talk
with your instructors, they will rant more about why databases are
good and Google is best for finding conspiracy theories.
Global Perspectives: International
Relations Concepts That Help You to Understand Your State in the
International System
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There are three schools of theory that you will see dominating
International Relations (IR) at this level. If you understand these
concepts, you will understand the way other states view the world
and why they make their choices. This means you can use their
perspectives to appeal to them.
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Below you will find brief summaries, but please know they are brief.
Use them as a starting point.
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Realism. Sometimes this is called realpolitik, and it is a favorite
of the US Department of Defense. Realism claims that the main
concern of states is state sovereignty and survival. Morality at the
state level is different from ordinary individual morality. A state
has a duty to its citizens through each state's constitution.
However, states do not have that same duty to other states. It is
better to break international law and protect your citizens and your
state than it is to uphold international law and lose it all. This
is the paradigm shift for most students. This is why states do not
trust each other, and expect states to do what is in their interest
rather than what is in the world's best interest.
Realism usually goes well with the economic tradition of
Mercantilism, which focuses on big industry, monopolies, and the
sort of capitalist fat cats that Adam Smith wrote against in Wealth
of Nations. The state has an interest in becoming economically
self-sufficient because economics can be used as a weapon, and a
state with a strong industrial sector can mass-produce the weapons
that make great armies even better.
Realists break politics down into a hierarchy that puts national
interest first and other issues second. That means a strong
military, secure sovereignty, and control in the international
system.
Hegemony/Hegemon. This is a concept that is found in Realist dialog.
The Hegemon is the state with the most military power. In the
self-help world, this is like being the big dog on the block. You
can do whatever you can get away with, and that is a lot. In Balance
of Power (BOP) terms, during the Cold War we were under a bipolar
world system with the U.S.S.R. and U.S. being equals. When the
U.S.S.R. fell, that left the U.S. as the only superpower, so we are
currently the Hegemon. The bad part about being the Hegemon is that
other states can feel threatened by the Hegemon's power and can gang
up to remove them. Think of it as being a schoolyard bully. You have
power as long as another bully does not come along that is stronger
or other kids simply gang up on you. Moreover, states that want to
make a name for themselves can do it by challenging your power. The
only way to survive is to stay strong.
- Liberalism. If you read Kant or Adam Smith, you have an idea a about
what liberals are about. Liberals believe that states are rational
actors, and if we work together and act rationally, we really can
avoid war and have perpetual peace. Liberals believe that democracy
is the most peaceful form of government and that if we spread
democracy we can make the world a better place.
Liberals are for the free market economy. A liberal market without
trade barriers is in the best interest for everyone. Competition in
the global market makes it possible for states to get richer, buy
imports cheaper, and because economic interdependence links
economies this also forces states to learn to get along in order to
economically get ahead.
Unlike Realists or Mercantilists, Liberals do not see the world in
terms of everyone out for themselves or economics as a weapon. In
fact, they view politics and economics as different subjects and
states can share in the wealth in a political and economic sense.
This school of thought can help to explain why states that fight on
political issues can get along as trade partners. Politics can
divide states, but economics can bring them together.
The UN was created with Liberal intentions. If we work together, we
can have peace. However, when we talk about Liberalism in IR, we are
not talking about the sort of "liberals" you hear about on Fox News.
Bush's goal of making Iraq a model for other states in the Middle
East by spreading democracy and the liberal market makes him sound a
lot like a Liberal, but still now like the sort of "liberal" that
Fox news rants about.
- Marxism/ Dependency Theory. Yes, this is the same Marx that inspired
what we think of Communism, Communism as practiced by the U.S.S.R.
As a theoretical alternative to Liberalism and Realism, this one
really lost its power after the fall of Communism. When IR theorists
speak about the fall of Communism they are talking about the fall of
the U.S.S.R. There are still Communist states out there, and
although China has liberalized over the years and gained
economically from it, it is not that Liberal. At best, China is a
Communist/Liberal hybrid.
Marxism as applied to IR focuses on the rich states versus the poor
states. The rich states need to keep the poor states poor so they
will be able to use them to stay in power. Marxism would say the
reason we invaded Iraq was for the oil, and if we can convince the
Iraqi people to buy into capitalism then we can use the system
against them and reap the energy benefits. For Marxists, the only
way to escape this deadly game is to have a violent revolt and adopt
Communism.
Dependency Theory is very popular with several developing states,
and it originally started as a theoretical answer to why developing
states can adopt Democracy and Capitalism and still find themselves
unable to pull themselves up from the developing world into the
developed world. This theory also has a rich verses poor aspect to
it, but does not involve a violent revolution (most times). This
theory is best for understanding the states who feel burned by the
Liberal/Capitalist system.
- Look at the attached resources to get more of a perspective on these
aspects if IR theory and how they apply to how states view the
international system and their places in it.
- Use the Model UN Prep Sheet to start thinking about how your state's
needs fits within the international system, who your friends are and
why, who your enemies are and why, and how you may be able to turn
enemies into friends.
Now That I know How My State
Thinks, and What My State is Interested in, How do I Turn This into
a Resolution?
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Check out the UN Position Paper
document I have attached as a model. This is an example of a
Position Paper for the UN General Assembly (UNGA), but you can adapt
it for the UNSC.
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Again, revisit UNSC Resolutions and
steal some language and phrases from these documents.
What is Going to Happen When We Run
Model UN? Part II
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Using Robert's Rules of Order as our
framework, the President of the UNSC (United States for the month of
June) will start the session.
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States will open the floor to
resolutions and debate.
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When states call a recess, there will
be a scramble to do back room politicking so states can further
their interests.
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Not everyone will be debating on the
floor. Therefore, they will be acting as diplomats politicking other
states diplomats, running information to and from their UNSC
representative, and taking care of immediate research needs.
Challenges and Policy
Considerations
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You really need to research UN
Peacekeeping missions and the effectiveness of sanctions. Although
the issue being debated may be in your state's interest, you may not
want the UNSC to be the agent of action.
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You may agree with the spirit of the
resolution, but the way they are arguing it may need modification.
You can modify it during debate.
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You can also add so many modifications
that no one will vote for it, which can be just as good as veto
power if you are good at it.
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Timeframe, Magnitude, and Impact
Calculus. Timeframe: Some issues are big issues, but their
impacts will happen several generations in the future. Other issues
may be more important because their impacts happen now.
Magnitude: If two issues are in conflict and one causes more
damage and destruction, the magnitude of the impacts can be a reason
to vote for or against an issue. Impact Calculus: Using
timeframe and magnitude arguments you can show how some issues
matter more. Pointing this out and using as a reason to vote for or
against something is called impact calculus.
Resources for Research
Resources for Research Topics
General information for all topics
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Climate change
Energy for Sustainable Development
Water Scarcity
Biotechnology and food production
International travel and health (avian
flu)
Intellectual property
Alternative energy
I need a little more help!
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