Imagine a room packed with passionate students from across the globe, each representing a different nation with unique pasts and priorities, discussing, debating, and drafting together to find solutions to the world’s most pressing issues. This is fundamentally what Model United Nations (or MUN for short) is about.
At its core, MUN is a simulation of the United Nations with the purpose of educating students on diplomacy, international relations, and global issues. Beyond a simulation, MUN has become a worldwide platform uniting students from diverse backgrounds and a space where future leaders are shaped. Each delegate (each student who takes part) takes on the role of a diplomat representing a country and researches their country’s position on various issues in advance so that, at the conference, they can best present their country’s views. In general, MUN conferences take place over the course of a few days, and involve multiple separate committees. Each committee is one of the individual rooms of the conference, and the conference itself is everything that happens over the course of the whole weekend. Each delegate will only debate within their own committee.
These committees are typically modelled after real UN organisations, such as the UN Security Council (UNSC) or the UN Economic and Financial Committee (ECOFIN), but can be in the form of non-UN international organisations, such as the African Union or the International Olympic Committee. You may also find crisis committees, which place you in the midst of a high-stakes situation needing to be addressed urgently — last year at OxfordMUN, our historical crisis was set in eighth century imperial China! Despite their differences, the goal of each and every committee is for the delegates to work together to draft and pass a resolution that addresses the issue at hand.
The discussion and direction of these committees is regulated by following a set of rules known as the Rules of Procedures (RoP), which a chair will oversee, but with which you should be comfortable, so that you can use them to your nation’s advantage. If you are unfamiliar with OxfordMUN’s usual RoP, keep an eye out for the upcoming RoP blog posts! Also, many specialised or crisis committees may use slightly different RoP, but if this is the case, it will be clearly indicated in your background guides.
As mentioned earlier, the wider objective of MUN is to educate students on international issues. However, MUN is also hugely valuable in helping you develop and strengthen skills like research, public speaking, negotiation, critical thinking, and teamwork — all of which are key skills, not just in the diplomatic world, but in life in general. The ability to navigate contrasting perspectives, find common ground, and compromise effectively is an important part of personal and professional growth.
Whether you’re an experienced debater or a complete beginner, MUN is a welcoming space for all. This is only the beginning of your MUN journey, but this blog will be here to guide you through it. It will be updated weekly, taking you through to the OxfordMUN Home Conference in November with posts on:
RoP explanations;
General MUN tips and tricks;
Information about Oxford;
Updates in international relations news;
Behind the scenes content with the Secretariat planning the conference;
And much more!
There is still a lot left to explore, but hopefully, these blog posts will provide a helpful introduction to the world of MUN and OxfordMUN in particular.