Get Involved in Model United Nations
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/03/12
The most bureaucratic organization on the planet, that most cumbersome of institutional juggernauts, is, almost inarguably, the United Nations. The United Nations forms a basis for international governance, structure, and law for negotiation, discussion, and compromise.
When the United Nations fails, the consequences for the international order tend to be terrible. The United Nations was founded in 1945 to promote global peace, security, and cooperation among countries. It addresses issues like human rights, environmental protection, international law, and development.
With 193 member states, the UN works through its various agencies to achieve its goals. The General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat are the main bodies of the United Nations.
The United Nations has its educational arms developed by universities, student bodies, or interested students and alumni. The basic formulation of the United Nations educational programs is interactive. These are called Model United Nations.
That’s true. It is one of the most valuable experiences for young people and some adults. It provides a foundation for engaging with the international community in a spirit of democratic debate, dialogue, and negotiation.
The basic premise is some students organize. Other students come as delegates or representatives of particular nations. They simulate an aspect of the United Nations, as in a model of the United Nations, hence the name Model United Nations.
I took part in so many of these models of the United Nations. I love them. I believe every aspiring international relations student, business student, political science student, and student of other degrees should honestly take part in these because of the value they provide to people. It is a sense of a unified vision of the world.
For me, it was akin to an anti-mercator projection vision. For example, the moment of seeing the world from the moment in a photograph: no borders, no boundaries, one planetary system. The United Nations respects the boundaries as a superimposed image on top of the moon-based photograph.
It is a marvellous idea, but difficult to achieve because of so many governance systems, cultural backgrounds, big personalities, and things to accomplish. The United Nations is meant to achieve some modicum of establishment of a common international rights-based order. It does, in some sense. It fails in others.
The importance of Model United Nations – and what I would recommend for all aspiring students – is the simulation of this from the basic to the advanced level. There is a level of competitiveness to it. However, the best delegates are those who know compromise, timing, teamwork, cooperation, and establishment of national and regional ties on common objectives.
There is a time for partying after hours, naturally, as young people do. Yet, the main purpose is meeting so many talented and smart people from all over the world and then working intensely with them over the period of 1 to 5 days, depending on the conference.
Get involved, have fun, and work to develop skills the world so dearly needs.
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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