SC (Security Council)

Issues:

Kenya Sri Lanka Argentina Emergency Crisis

Members:

Security Council Members

Directors:

The fundamental role of the Security Council within the United Nations structure is to sustain international peace and security. The Security Council identifies any dangers to international peace, issues recommendations, uses appropriate enforcement procedures to resolve problems, and finally, organizes UN peacekeeping forces. The Security Council has 15 members: five permanent members appointed by the United Nations Charter and ten nonpermanent members designated by informal regional caucuses and elected for two-year terms. Five countries are elected each year.

Voting procedure in the Security Council entails substantial matters. Decision on these matters requires nine votes. A veto, or an opposing vote by any permanent member, is suitable to defeat an action. The resolutions pertaining to the Security Council are binding to all United Nations member states.

The 2008 Security Council Program of the Hope College United Nations includes ten Security Councils (which will this year share five topics) and is designed for advanced Model UN students. In this program, country delegations will consist of two students. The Security Council crisis situations are: Iran, East Timor, Kosovo, a historical crisis in the form of the Falkland Islands, and an Emergency Crisis. Basic descriptions of all these crises are included in this handbook. Delegates will receive annotated bibliographies for the first four crises in future mailings, and as such will be expected to have prepared objectives to solve the crises prior to arriving at the conference. The emergency crisis will be revealed once delegates arrive to the Model UN conference in March.

On Thursday, March 5, 2008, delegates will go to their respective Security Councils for the explanation of the rules and briefing on the present statuses of the crises. After these procedures, delegates will be dismissed for the banquet. After the banquet, the delegates will return back to their assigned sessions to debate and caucus. Furthermore, simulated developments in each crisis will be declared by our administrators at unannounced times during the session, so students must be prepared to adjust and improvise in order to comply with new circumstances.

Security Council delegates will be housed on campus Thursday night (if needed) and will have three sessions on Friday, March 6, 2009.

China and Tibet

Helpful Sources:

Apte, Robert Z. and Edwards, Andres R. Tibet: Enduring Spirit, Exploited Land. Bloomington: AuthorHouse, 2004

Blondeau, Anne-Marie and Buffetreille, Katia. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China’s 100 Questions. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008

Davis, Michael C. “Establishing a Workable Autonomy in Tibet.” Human Rights Quarterly 30 (2008): 227-258

Davis, Michael C. “The Quest for Self-Rule in Tibet.” Journal of Democracy 18 (2007): 157-171

Deen, Thalif. “Politics: Tibet Bypasses Security Council Scrutiny” Inter Press Service. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41642

Dhir, Aaron. “Tibetan Self-Determination and Human Rights: A Conversation with Eva Herzer, President of the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet.” Social Justice 26.1 (1999): 72-77

Goldstein, Melvyn C. The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997

Herzer, Eva. “The Right to Self Determination- the Legal Cornerstone to Tibet’s Future.” Save Tibet. http://www.savetibet.org/news/positionpapers/selfdetermination.php

Hoffmann, Steven A. “Rethinking the Linkage between Tibet and the China-India Border Conflict.” Journal of Cold War Studies 8.3 (2006): 165-194

Smith, Warren W. Jr., China’s Tibet: Autonomy or Assimilation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2008

Various Websites
http://www.tibet.org/Why/
http://www.savetibet.org/
http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php
http://hrw.org/doc/?t=asia&c=china
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/opinion/18tue3.html

Ethiopia and Somalia

Helpful Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7803564.stm
http://www.historyguy.com/ethiopia-somalia_war_2006.html
http://www.mfa.gov.et/Foreign_Policy_And_Relation/Relations_With_Horn_Africa_Somalia

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/ is a Swiss security and international relations database and arguably one of the best of its kind. Students are strongly recommended to visit this site in search of information on their topic.

Afghanistan

Helpful Sources:

United Nations Security Council (Full-text resolutions can be found at this site)
URL: < http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/index.html>

Global Policy Forum
UN Involvement in Afghanistan
URL: < http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/afgindx.htm>

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
URL: < http://www.nato.int/ISAF/index.html>

UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA)
URL: < http://www.unama-afg.org/Index.htm>

Two very useful articles have been put together by the Congressional Research Service division of the Library of Congress and can be publicly accessed using the OpenCRS website:
< http://opencrs.com/>.

Afghanistan: Post-War Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy
Kenneth Katzman
NATO in Afghanistan: A Test of the Transatlantic Alliance
Vincent Morelli and Paul Gallis

In addition to these sources, participants of Model UNSC are strongly encouraged to research recent news pertaining to the situation in Afghanistan and stay up to date on events in the region.

Emergency Crisis

The Emergency Crisis is intended for returning Model United Nations participants who would like an extra challenge. The students involved will be told of the crisis upon their arrival at the conference. Like the other Security Council crises, the students in the Emergency Crisis will be asked to resolve a major conflict.

Guidelines

1. The Emergency Security Council will follow the same procedures as the other Security Councils.
2. There will be no information given as to what the crisis is prior to 5:30 pm on Thursday March 5, 2009.
3. The committee will address a particular issue(s) that could be real or fictional, but something the Security Council would address.
4. The issue(s) will be a conflict in which at least three or four Security Council members have a passionate interest.
5. In addition to the presider, this Security Council will be enhanced by delegates from each party of the conflict who will express the views of their respective countries regarding the crisis.
6. To add to the complexity, the presider will be ready with several new pieces of information that have the potential to sway opinions or increase controversy.
7. The presider may answer question(s) regarding details and may create and react to the situation as he or she sees fit.
8. The presider and the expert witness will have a general understanding of the nations in the Security Council and the roles they have played in order to both increase interest in the simulation and to judge the participants fairly and accurately.