Preparing for Model UN

1. Preparing for Model UN Learn about World Affairs and Be up to Date with the News. Advance your speaking and debating abilities, including improving your English. Research even before you know the specific topics that will be discussed at the Model UN conference. Learn about the UN and Its Different Bodies. Learn about the Country you Will be Representing.

2. What to Know about your Country I • Geography (neighbors, resources, topography, geopolitical significance). • Political Structure (history, key people, policies, type of state/government). • People (culture, identity, social development, religious and ethnic groups). • History (general; post-WWII; recent, allies and enemies, type of history). • Economy (monetary system, trade organizations, type, general history).

3. What to Know about your Country II • International relationships (formal and informal alliances, organizations, foreign policy, views on world problems, international disputes, problems, concerns). • Military Power (armed forces, defense spending, dependency, alliances and pacts, security concerns).

4. Preparing Continued… • Learn about the issues as soon as you receive the list of the topics to be discussed in your committee. The best place to begin will be the topic papers that conference organizers will send you. • Using published sources and the Internet, learn about the historical and geopolitical background to the topics as well as the current situation. • You should also find, read, and copy available treaties, conventions, agreements, UN resolutions, reports, and other relevant documents. • Sometimes, finding clear-cut info on your country’s viewpoint is not readily available, but you can deduce a lot from your country’s general policy and interests.

5. Topic Papers • Conference organizers will send our school a summary of each topic. These summaries are called topic papers and have background information on the subject matter. • As well as giving a general understanding of the topic in a text of manageable length, the paper’s bibliography will guide you in the right direction for further research.

6. Position Papers • Most conferences require delegates to write a few paragraphs or pages on their delegation’s position on the agenda topics before the conference. • They want these so that you have spent some time researching and thinking about the topics beforehand, but they sometimes can be used to determine awards. • Position papers should be to-the-=point about what your country thinks about the issue, why it thinks so, how it is affected by the issue, its relations with involved parties, and your suggestions for a solution.

7. Speech Outlines • Making a list of major points you know you will make at some point during the debate can be helpful, but avoid writing out a full speech before or during the conference.

8. Draft Resolutions • Some conferences accept draft resolutions on the committee topics prior to the conference, but most do not. • Whatever the conference policy, it is extremely important at least to think about ideas for a resolution and to write them down in idea or clause form.

9. Preparing as a Group • Since most members of a team will be doing much of the same research, it is a good idea to share this work. Each person on a delegation can be assigned a part of the research, with each person writing a page-long summary of the most important points relating to his or her portion of the research. • Build a team identity and strategy.