Model United Nations
18^th Annual Model UN Conference
Largest in GM History

By Margaret Lipman (October 6, 2005)

The George Mason Model United Nations Club hosted the largest Model UN Conference in GM history last Friday and Saturday, as over 360 student delegates from 13 Maryland and Virginia schools gathered to represent the nations of the world in 10 different UN committees.  The annual conference was the eighteenth hosted by GM, and was consequently known as GMMUNCXVIII.

Just as this year marked the highest number of delegates , it also marked the highest number of participating schools (Thomas Jefferson, Yorktown, George C. Marshall, Garfield, CD Hylton, James Madison, Langley, West Potomac, Thomas A. Edison, Osbourn, McLean, Flint Hill, and the Islamic Saudi Academy) and the highest number of conference committees.

Friday night’s Opening Ceremonies featured diplomat Prudence Bushnell as a guest speaker.  Among other notable posts in a lengthy Foreign Service career, Ms. Bushnell served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Ambassador to the Republic of Kenya (1996-1999), and Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala (1999-2002).  She spoke to the delegates about her first-hand experience as a Foreign Service officer and the frustrations and victories she faced, particularly in trying to end the Rwandan genocide despite the United States government’s decision not to intervene in the devastating crisis.  She encouraged the delegates to truly think about the importance of achieving peaceful resolutions, both during the conference and in the future as citizens of the world and possibly as future diplomats.

Delegates in the Disarmament and Security Committee discuss the issue of disarming the Janjaweed militia in the Sudan during an unmoderated caucus. (Photo by Margaret Lipman)

After introducing the chairs of the 10 committees and discussing her own passion for Model UN, Secretary General Mariam Alshagra officially banged the gavel to declare GMMUNCXVIII in session.  The delegates made their way to rooms all over the school building that would contain the Security Council, the Historic Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, the African Union, the Arab League, the Disarmament and Security Committee (DISEC), the Social and Humanitarian Committee (SOCHUM), the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (SPECPOL) and the World Health Organization (WHO.)  Each committee was chaired by one or two George Mason students, all members of the GM MUN Club.

Mason alumni Arya Namboodiri, Kaitlin Bottock and Michael Duarte also returned to help chair.  The committee chairs had prepared detailed background papers on the various topics that their committees would be tackling, ranging from disarming the Janjaweed militia in the Sudan (DISEC) to the Bird Flu crisis (WHO) to U.S. Intervention in Iran (the European Union) to the Cuban Missile Crisis (the Historic Security Council).

By Saturday afternoon, the delegates had debated through three committee sessions, produced pages and pages of resolutions, and endured several simulated crises.  The student chairs (who ranged from sophomores to seniors) had successfully guided their committees through proper UN procedure, undoubtedly thanks to the assistance of Alshagra, Undersecretary-General Soorya Namboodiri, club sponsor Ms. Tammy Chincheck, and other club members who served as typists and committee pages.  The committee chairs also had the important task of selecting delegates to receive awards, most notably the honor of being named a committee’s “Best Delegate” and receiving a gavel.

The Closing Ceremonies ended with a final bang of the Secretary-General’s gavel, and GMMUNCXVIII was declared closed, but not without a definite commitment to make next year’s conference just as much of a success.