Model United Nations

Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a country, organization, or person, and must solve a problem with other delegates from around the world. MUN teaches participants skills like research, public speaking, debating, and writing, in addition to critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership. While MUN is typically used as an extracurricular activity, some schools also offer it as a class. MUN is meant to engage students, and allow them to develop deeper understanding into current world issues and world politics. Delegates conduct research before conferences: they must formulate position papers, and create policy proposals that they will debate with other delegates in their committee. At the end of a conference, delegates will vote on written policies (called draft resolutions), with the goal of passing them with a majority vote. The best-performing delegates in each committee, as well as delegations, are sometimes recognized with awards. MUN organizations have conferences that accommodate students, from elementary school, all the way to college or university levels. Most conferences will often cater to just one of these three levels. Delegates usually attend conferences together, as delegations sent by their respective school or university's Model UN clubs, though some delegates attend conferences independently. Model UN began as a series of student-led Model League of Nations simulations. The first simulations were called "international assemblies", the first of which was held at Oxford University in November 1921, with the potential first ever simulation being on 12 November 1921. Following several simulations in Oxford, Mir Mahmood, the president of the first Oxford International Assembly, traveled to Harvard in 1922 to help spread this idea further.