Berkeley Model United Nations Welcome Letter Delegates, welcome to BMUN LXIX! My name is Justin Flesher, I am a sophomore majoring in Economics at Berkeley. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where I was able to gain a working knowledge of and deep respect for Model UN. Later, I had the opportunity to graduate early from high school and participate on a year-long exchange through the State Department to Germany during what would have been my senior year. There I had the wonderful experience of learning German and I gained a deeper understanding of European politics. I hope to share the same excitement I have for European political issues with you all this year in BMUN. Along with other members of my dias, I am very excited to join delegates in debating and crafting resolutions this year. Melika Rahbar is a junior at UC Berkeley double majoring in Economics and Political Science. This is Melika’s third year in BUMN, in addition to having done four years of Model United Nations. Outside of BMUN, she is involved in other on campus clubs such as UEA consulting and her sorority Delta Sigma. Melika is so excited for BMUN 69 and can’t wait to meet all of the delegates and see what ideas they come up with! Rajita Pujare is a junior at UC Berkeley majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. This will be her second year at BMUN, after having participated in Model United Nations for four years at high school. Aside from BMUN, Rajita is involved with other campus organizations such as Computer Science Mentors. She is thrilled for BMUN 69, and looks forward to meeting the delegates and hearing their discussions and solutions! Joseph Maga is a freshman at UC Berkeley with interests in music and economics. He is for many years. Aside from BMUN, Joseph plays the piano and organ, swims, and plays board games with his friends. He looks forward to seeing the delegates, and the solutions that they present.
BERKELEY MODEL UNITED NATIONS 1 General Information
Background Information on Europe
*Throughout this essay, italics will be used to differentiate between acronyms/abbreviations and citations. Acronyms in parentheses will be in italics.
Brief European History in the Early 20th Century
War plagued much of the modern history of the European continent. In the aftermath of WWI, many states who participated in the war abandoned their last attempts at European monarchical empires, either through forced war concessions or through political and social movements (Royde- Smith). The period following WWI saw the beginnings of widespread European democracy. However, emboldened by rising economic and social tensions in the late 1920’s, Europe also became the birthplace of a new political movement called fascism which embraced militaristic nationalism and turned away from electoral democracy (Soucy). Fascist inspired authoritarian leaders soon controlled many of Europe’s most populous and industrially productive nations – Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, and Salazar in Portugal to name a few (Soucy). Fascist/Nazi ideology — as well as racist, antisemitic, and eugenic ideology — fueled leaders like Hitler and Mussolini to engage in the expansion of land to create their empires and expand their power. Eventually war — later known as World War II — broke out again and engulfed the European continent for six years (Royde-Smith).
Aftermath of WWII
WWII completely destroyed Europe, both victors and vanquished decimated Europe in the process of defeating their respective enemies. During the reconstruction period following the war, new leaders across Europe came together in an effort to prevent future wars and their ensuing destruction. In 1950, the French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) with the aim to “make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible” (“European Union”). The aim of creating a more economically connected Europe was twofold. Not only would it create more economic opportunities and a bigger market to aid an
BERKELEY MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2 economically recovering Europe, but some leaders like Schuman really believed that the linking of various European nations’ economic and political systems together would make war on the continent virtually impossible. Some visions for a more connected Europe went further, some scholars and leaders, Winston Churchill among them, envisioned the eventual creation of a pan- European state working much like a “United States of Europe” (Churchill). In 1952, six nations: Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands – who are now accredited as the six founding members of the European Union — brought a piece of this vision to reality and Economic Community (EEC) known commonly as the “common market” which established a customs union between the six member states (Gabel).
Photo of a destroyed Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Many cities across Europe experienced similar destruction. Source: The Atlantic.
The European Union Today Creation of the European Community
Following the creation of the EEC, the next few decades saw its expansion with Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joining in 1973, Greece in 1981, and Spain and Portugal in 1986.
BERKELEY MODEL UNITED NATIONS 3 Following mass protests across the Eastern Bloc and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 — precluding market” in 1986 which formally established one market for goods and services, in 1993 the EEC instituted the “four freedoms”, which included the freedoms to move goods, services, people, and money across the borders of EU/EEC member states (Gabel). The Treaty on European Union — also known as the “Maastricht Treaty” or the TEU — in 1993 formally established the European Union, and fully integrated the three European Communities: the EEC, ECSC, and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) (“Maastricht Treaty”). The TEU also renamed the EEC to the European Community (EC) and created a path for the ECSC and Euratom to fully integrate into the European Community, which would become part of the fully formulated, newly named European Union (EU or Union the Schengen Area, which abolished internal border controls and established a common visa policy (“European Union”).
An Italian bank clerk is seen counting Italian Lira in Banca d’Italia in Palermo, Italy in 2002 before the notes were due to be destroyed after the introduction of the Euro. Source: Business Insider.
The EU spent much time throughout the 1990’s preparing for a European Monetary Union — outlined in the Maastricht Treaty — which culminated in the creation of the Euro on January 1st, national currencies for the Euro happened three years later on January 1st decade of the 21st century also oversaw the biggest expansion of the EU since its inception with the BERKELEY MODEL UNITED NATIONS 4 addition of many former Eastern Bloc nations, such as Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 (“European Union”).
The Lisbon Treaty