IsarMUN 2011
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IsarMUN United Nations Security Council
Statement of the Chair
When does someone have the opportunity to be part of a body making decisions which have an echo that the world would still sense years after. The feeling of it is possible during a Model United Nation and 15 delegates from different universities all over Germany and even one American university took part in an UNSC simulation of the IsarMUN 2011. Before the simulation itself the Co-Chair of the UNSC, Nicki Weber, and me had quite a tough time to prepare the simulation of this powerful committee. What topics would be complex enough and still be well-known? What “special situation” would we choose to confront the delegates and give them an additional challenge? To answer the first question: we decided for two classical topics for the agenda setting. So, in December the situation in Afghanistan and the situation in Somalia were on the Agenda of the UNSC at IsarMUN 2011. During the first session the delegates discussed lively about the two topics and in the end the decisive turn originated from the US picking the latter topic as its focus. After some attempts to vote on the agenda and due to the remark of the Chair that the dais would decide about the agenda should the delegates not come to the necessary majority of nine in favor of one topic, Somalia became the topic to be dealt with.
After hard times of setting the agenda the delegates held their speeches on the topic of Somalia. Unmoderated Caucuses were excluded totally. Instead, moderated caucuses were used to find the delicate points and to discuss them. As a whole the subject was not easy for the committee, thus the main details had to be found first. The topic of Afghanistan seemed to be easier to handle: in that way the committee’s decision was wise.
The second session started in the same mode. It was in one of these two sessions when the map of Somalia was put on the wall, due to the initiative of the United States, to localize the problems and to get a clearer idea of the region to be dealt with. In the middle of the second session working papers were introduced which already read as draft resolutions. The discussions about them were lively. Different groups worked on different working papers and it looked like it would become hard to combine them. Still it seemed that the members didn’t really work against each other. But it became evident that time was short. In addition during the second session a crisis between Iran and Israel came up. After the third news about the crisis the delegates decided to change the topic and put the crisis on the agenda. The Secretary General was asked to speak about the situation. After that the two delegates of Iran and Israel were asked to come to the Security Council to be questioned. They were grilled but defended the positions of their countries very well. A quick solution did not seem likely but the UNSC kept the topic and adopted a resolution in the third session. The resumption of the topic on Somalia took place quickly and constructive work under extreme time pressure was essential. To get around a difficult voting procedure the committee tried to solve conflicts beforehand and put the draft resolution on the wall. The delegates worked constantly in unmoderated caucuses. Only a few times the chair asked the delegates to report about the results. Special points were discussed in moderated terms. In the last session the draft resolution was finalized by the typing fingers of the United Kingdom. Straight after that the committee closed debate and went into voting procedure. Last questions got answered. The delegates were only critical about Russia which could veto the resolution. All others were pretty content with it. In the second round of the roll call vote the resolution passed without any votes against.
It was a great committee, very well-prepared delegates, eloquent, effective and constructive in their work. And as in the years before, the debate was very lively and intense. Perhaps in future one will see one or the other on the international stage. Why not?
Mark-Arne Fuhl
Chair of the UNSC at IsarMUN 2011