Model United Nations, IRP 413

1 Zhivkov Ivan Zhivkov April 13, 2013 Syracuse University Model United Nations, IRP 413 Doctor D’Amico

My NMUN Experience

One of the most intensive, yet exciting experiences I have had the privilege of partaking in was being a part of the Syracuse University National Model United Nations Team. Together we represented the Czech Republic in the NMUN Conference in New York City. The rigorous process of preparation I underwent, along with the personal initiative I made sure to follow allowed me to become a stronger and more knowledgeable delegate, able to better get my point across. This experience was unique, exhilarating and one that I will not forget soon. This is the story of how I came to be a Distinguished Delegate.

Upon my declaration of the International Relations major, I was informed of an opportunity that would be intensive and unique – a Model United Nations team. I had heard the term before, but I was unsure of what it entailed due to the lack of such an opportunity in my high school. I wanted to participate, so I joined the Syracuse Model UN Club and had the chance to represent the Islamic Republic of Iran. During the process I experienced caucusing, formal procedure and draft resolution. I gained a good idea of the process, but I was not able to understand the large scale of the Conference in the Club. My interest only grew and I sent an application for the Model UN Team. Acceptance soon came, to my delight, and I found out that we were representing the Czech Republic. Starting early was the key to success.

I began my research on the Czech Republic and its stances upon completing my Fall 2012 semester. I was aware of the competitiveness and I wanted to be prepared. Twenty members were to be selected in a team of twenty-two students. I wanted a spot and I was determined to be 2 one of those twenty. Researching the Czech Republic proved to be a rather easy task because I had previous knowledge on the region, being born and raised in Bulgaria, and the websites from our head delegate, Ivan Bakin, were a great help. Upon seeing the different committees that the

Czech Republic had representation, I had an idea of which one I wanted to partake in. My initial list included the Human Rights Council, the International Atomic Energy Agency, General

Assembly 1 and C32. I chose them during my winter break and I researched each to gain a better idea of which I wanted to be in. Heading into the IRP 413 Global Governance Practicum course,

I was decently prepared but still somewhat unsure what to expect.

The way the class ran was very unexpected but I really liked it. I enjoyed that the Head

Delegates, who had an experience with Model United Nations, were running the procedural aspects of the class and I found it very easy to learn from them. I was beginning to step into delegate mode from the very beginning. The first week was informative and yet humbly intense.

Everyone was aware that two Delegates would be the Archivists that would stay behind during the conference and compile pictures/videos from our sessions. I felt like everyone was on edge because they wanted to be chosen to go. I am not sure if that was the intention, but it did raise my productivity and instill a sense of determination. Although, as much as I wanted to be on the team, I would never put my competitiveness before helping out a fellow delegate. Whenever someone approached me with questions, I would answer them and point the person in the right direction. I wanted to make the Team, but I was going to do it diplomatically and fairly. Those were my thoughts during the first few weeks. I am not sure whether it was intended for the course to be like that and instill such values, but it worked.

The logistics were simple and I remembered the formal procedures from my time as a

MUN Club member. The second day we watched the UN Fever video and I was able to get an 3 Zhivkov inside look of how the conference was ran. I saw some of the different personalities I would encounter – from the hardcore debater to the simply obnoxious person. I also saw that caucusing played an integral part of the NMUN experience. The personal time that one has with other delegates to convince them of their position is perhaps the most important part of the conference.

I wondered what persona was best when dealing with others – whether it is better to be friendly and nice or stern and determined. I decided to be myself and employ both. As Machiavelli said,

“a successful ruler must be both a lion and a fox.”

The preparation for the Conference was intense and mentally stimulating. The quizzes we had from week to week were very important because they kept me on top of my reading and the subject at hand. I thoroughly enjoyed the stand and deliver portion of the quizzes. Speaking in front of the Dais gave me greater confidence in my speech and the constructive criticism that followed was very helpful for me to become a better speaker. The format of the class helped me to learn better and everyone was expected to have read the material. This sort of atmosphere pushes the person to read ahead and know more because again, there are only twenty spots on the team. The assigned reading, Insider’s Guide to the UN, was extremely informative and gave me a history of the UN and how it has evolved over the years. Also, it helped me to pick my committees better in the following sense: I learned that the ECOSOC is criticized for being all talk and no action and upon further reading I found it to be rather true. Therefore I did not want to be in the ECOSOC committee. Secondly, the Human Rights Council was described and criticized by many for focusing more on the human rights violations of the United States and

Israel rather than to the more serious ones of Syria, Russia, etc. This was a red flag for me. The

Czech Republic is an ally of the United States and the Human Rights Council seemed like they would not favor our positions. The Council seemed like a trap because I did not want to 4 participate in a committee where my country’s position would most likely be thoroughly trampled on. Thus, I modified my committee selections.

Upon choosing my committee, I chose the following in that same order: International

Atomic Energy Agency, C34, and General Assembly 1. It was my first time so I had a decent idea of what each entailed. I was informed that I was selected for my first choice, the IAEA, and my partner would be Brianna Isabelle. That very same day, my partner reached out to me and we got started on the work.

Writing the position papers was perhaps the hardest thing that Brianna and I did during the course of the preparation. It involved an immense amount of research and reading about Czech foreign policy. The knowledge we gained about Czech history and diplomacy earlier in the semester came into play when we needed to determine the Czech position. While reading documents, the Czech position on a particular issue is not always stated directly so we had to infer a number of times. That was one of the challenges that Brianna and I ran into. Another challenge was the language alongside the format of the position paper. The format was rather easy to master but the language was not. Writing a document with a minimal use of passive verbs, including the word “is,” proved to be extremely arduous. Bringing our position paper to the attention of the Dais was a moment of pride and exhilaration. We put a lot of effort into it and we were expecting the comments to make it even better. A word of advice I have for future students is to make use of one’s resources. First and foremost when writing a position paper, one must know one’s country. Reading the history, the current diplomacy, major national/international issues, and their United Nations Positions. Secondly, begin writing while trying to state the position in the most simple, diplomatic terms. It must be simple and easy to understand without fancy adjectives, unnecessary jargon, etc. Thirdly, and perhaps most 5 Zhivkov importantly, use the Dais. The Dais is there to help you, so take advantage of them. My partner and I would constantly contact the Chair, Ivan Bakin, with questions and we would always send him a number of drafts in a given day. We would meet in the library and he would personally check our paper in front of us and explain to us his comments step by step. It made us better writers of position papers. As for me personally, it improved my English Language capabilities thoroughly.

One of the most important and vital components of the Model United Nations experience are the teambuilding activities. These tend to be overlooked, but they carry an extreme significance in the manner the team performs. With teambuilding activities, an individual gets to know his/her teammates on a more personal level outside the classroom. We become more comfortable with each other. We offer advice and tips to our teammates, and most importantly we begin to care for one another. This is what makes us a solid, unbreakable team. We had a team dinner at Ivan Bakin’s house, where we ate, shared stories with each other and had some good laughs. It was a very good night and I talked with other members I had not previously spoken to. What I found out was that we all shared the same feeling of excitement and nervousness for the conference. I felt closer to them, and soon afterward we began to meet more often in the library and even eat meals together. Team building is extremely important and Ivan

Bakin did a good job with our team.

As the Conference date neared, my partner and I met daily. We had created our Caucus

Strategy and we were debating our potential allies and rivals. We decided on the issues that we wanted to discuss and in the order: 1. Emergency Nuclear Preparedness (#2), 2. Nuclear

Situation in North Korea (#1), 3. IAEA Nuclear Safeguards (#3). Our most likely allies were the countries in the Eastern European bloc and we included other countries in the European Union as 6 well. We expected that the countries of Japan, Ukraine, Brazil and some Eastern European countries would greatly favor discussing Emergency Preparedness first because they experienced some sort of nuclear calamity. However, we were wrong on this prediction. Those were our potential allies, while poorer countries unable to afford implementing safeguards and industrializing countries like Russia and China may not have been very favorable towards us. We kept that in mind.

Once the Position Papers were posted, Brianna and I would each read them and try to sort them into which issue they would most likely support. I read over names of countries and institutions of origin. I was familiar with many schools and excited over the large international body. Reading over different papers, one could tell the more prepared delegations and I was not sure who I wanted to encounter: a more well prepared delegation that may disagree and remain adamant on their stance, or a not-so prepared delegation that I will be able to easily convert to our cause. As the time came, I would employ both strategies with rather good success.

After moths of preparation, reading, caucusing and writing position papers, the day had come. I was walking up 7th Ave. to the Sheraton Hotel to meet the rest of my delegation, slightly aware of my lateness but more focused on how the day will proceed. The first day is Agenda

Setting. The three choices of the IAEA were: Nuclear Situation in North Korea, Emergency

Nuclear Preparedness, and IAEA Safeguards. Right from the get-go with my arrival, fast change of clothes and meeting with my partner Brianna, I was aware of the numerous delegations around us. Brianna and I wanted to find the IAEA members. We stumbled upon the delegation from

Angola and Brazil, both very lovely and open minded who agreed with our stance but preferred the third choice. Then we came upon the delegation from Lebanon, and we spent a twenty minute mostly one sided conversation listening to a girl whose position differed from our own 7 Zhivkov and she refused to listen to our stance, rebuttals or explanations. It is easy to spot a hostile delegations and Lebanon was one of them.

Our continual mixing and mingling continued to the Hilton Hotel for the opening ceremony. The amount of different people and their countries of origin were just tremendous.

Brianna and I were aware of the positions of the different delegations and we were getting more and more tense for the Agenda setting. The ceremony had technical difficulties and rather undiplomatic delegations but overall it was enjoyable. However, my thoughts were focused on what would follow next.

My original hypothesis going into the Conference was that most of the delegations would support the Nuclear Situation in North Korea as the most pressing issue at the moment. I was right on this prediction; most were favoring discussing North Korea first. My plan of action was simple: Emergency Preparedness was probably the second most popular issue so we take the

Delegations supporting the Safeguards issue, them being the smallest number, and convince them to support Emergency Preparedness as the first one and we would support Safeguards as the second issue. My plan was to pool our efforts together and hopefully outnumber the strong majority who support discussing North Korea first. We would play on our allies and present strong points and convictions.

The agenda setting was intense to say the least. There are two types of delegations in the committee, those that knew their positions and wanted to lead and then there were those that just went for the ride. The more prepared committees sat near the front and adamantly raised their placards. This setting was a complete Hobbesian State of Nature, dominated by struggle and uncertainty. The delegates had their minds set on a topic and many would not listen to the most simple and rational explanation. Many agreed with the Czech’s position that Brianna and I 8 supported, but others refused to see the rational and rather, common sense explanation. Many delegations were utterly unprepared for the Conference. Others did not know the stance that their country has on an issue and the large majority had no idea of the power and function that the

IAEA employs. Around eighty to nighty percent of the delegations assumed that the IAEA was the Security Council in terms of power and influence. They simply did not understand that the job of the Agency is to advise and recommend in terms of nuclear materials. The only action that the Agency can take is sent emergency nuclear personnel to a country. It was very frustrating for

Brianna and I to constantly remind everyone of what the IAEA can do and try to hint to some delegations what their countries truly support. Through our adamant efforts we got the United

States, China, Brazil and many other countries on our side to support issue #2. It was fundamentally the right choice. It seemed to us that many delegations had only researched issue

#1, assuming that it will be the chosen one. They were unprepared to discuss the other two issues. Brianna and I managed to get many delegations that supported issue #3 to flip to our side and pose a great challenge to the domineering majority. However, due to the enormous size of the committee, Brianna and I were unable to delegate and facilitate such a large number of people so our efforts were momentarily futile. In the end, the Agenda was set and it was not in our favor. North Korea would be discussed first. It was an issue that the IAEA was simply powerless to act on.

That night a miracle happened. The best thing that Brianna and I could do was to learn and adapt to the circumstances. The Agenda was set for now. I spoke with my Head Delegate and decided to incorporate our aims and goals from the second issue to the first issue. We would use what we wanted and incorporate it to our position paper. Also, we needed to take a strong stance on North Korea. That was when a terrible realization occurred. Looking over our Position Papers 9 Zhivkov and other documents, I realized: the Czech Republic had a stance on North Korea, but it had absolutely nothing of what we can do to deal with them. There was nothing that we can contribute and I started to get tense. This was not good. We need to support something, anything.

That first night Brianna and I had an emergency session. We had to get ourselves together. We conducted an extensive research in the hallway of the Sheraton, trying to desperately glean some possible hints of what our country will support in this situation. Also, it had to be something that the IAEA can accomplish. It seemed futile but we kept going. Then an idea struck.

I had an idea of something we can do and I shared it with my partner along with my rationale. She strongly approved it. It was a plan of action. The bare bones of our position paper that I quickly jotted down and expanded on them on my notepad. The DDDRS was born. It was a set of interconnected ideas that could be formulated in a detailed resolution paper. It clearly indicated the Czech claims in this issue that could be very compatible with many countries. Also, we had a cool acronym for it. Our job was to sell it to the other delegations and defend it with all of our might. It was an incredible idea and I had to defend it. This was my baby and I wanted it to be approved.

The next day, we visited the Bohemian National Hall and met with the Deputy

Ambassador of the Czech Republic. It was an honor for me to be there. I found the session to be quite informative and a bit humorous. When Brianna and I asked what the Czech Republic had in mind about the DPRK, he simply answered that if one had the answer then s/he should win a

Nobel Prize. That did not help us much, but it was nice. We had received a number of emails by that time and we had begun to talk about drafting papers. During the session that day, it was rather intense but it went over well. I sold the idea to numerous delegations, especially to those who I felt were more prepared. Others just followed along. Our main allies became Germany and 10

Slovakia, with Eritrea, Spain, Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria joining later. Together we made a small but mighty bloc led by the Czech republic. Brianna and I were in control. I wrote this first draft paper using my language and the others unanimously approved it. It was a good draft.

The next day the mergers came. The Latin American bloc approached us and wanted to merge and that is when some hassle and frustration settled in. They wanted to use our ideas and be in control of our group. That was not happening. I was not going to relinquish my control to some rather hostile delegations who wanted to take over. There was a debate and we decided to pool our ideas and make a new paper. It went over smoothly and everyone was content. No one on their side dared to challenge my ideas. My group gave me backing but I was a bit frustrated that not many were very vocal but were rather receptive to the hostility of the Latin American

Delegates. Also, my partner received an idea from the delegate of Ghana and they started working on another position paper. The Czech Republic wrote that one as well but it split our original group in half and we lost some ground to the hostile ones. Next the Dais suggested we merge with the P5 countries and that was a hassle. I made sure that my voice was heard. I was there when the paper was written and I fought for the representation of Czech ideas. It went over nicely, but when it came time to discuss Emergency Response Teams, I was up against everyone.

No one came to my side to defend the one thing that this Agency CAN do. It went back and forth for about five minutes, and then I diplomatically backed down given that I was the only delegate dissenting. The one muscle that we had was gone. I was not happy.

As a last minute resort, I read about an “unfriendly amendment” then I quickly consulted with Ivan Bakin. He said, “Do it”. That is all I needed. I had thirty minutes, I wrote my proposed amendment. It needed twenty-seven signatures. I began campaigning and I got my old comrades to do the same. It ended up being only me trying to get it done and I got up to fourteen 11 Zhivkov signatures. It was a bummer. Emergency Response Teams, one of the ideas that we tried to incorporate from Issue #2 to Issue #1 was not to be. The muscle of the IAEA was not included.

However, everything that the Czech Republic supported made it to the final position paper. The

DDDRS was almost unchanged. It became Position Paper #6 and later came to be known as

Resolution #6. I was happy that it passed. Brianna’s paper did not have a similar fate, falling short by a few votes. Overall, the Czech Republic was successful in the IAEA.

The final day, when we visited the United Nations, my breath was swept away. The opportunity to vote on a Resolution on the General Assembly was surreal. I watched the room, took pictures and saw my friend address the audience. It was amazing. Afterward, we took more pictures and waited to hear the results. The Czech Republic received the Honor of a

Distinguished Delegation. I was not sure how to feel. I was happy, yet I thought we were much better. Among my friends, I sensed that the general feel was disappointment. We all worked so hard and we were among the best delegations in every committee. However, after some time we accepted the fact and enjoyed this prestigious honor that was bestowed upon us. We were happy nonetheless.

My overall impression was that many delegations were simply not prepared. The amount of followers exceeded that of leaders and many would not change their minds regardless of the rationale we presented. I wondered if that is similar to the real United Nations. The committee procedures were good and Brianna and I spoke twice, giving excellent speeches that resulted in numerous delegations passing notes praising our rhetoric. Speaking in front of everyone, I felt powerful. It was a very exhilarating experience and I got the point across. We represented the

Czech Republic very well. Brianna and I steered the ship. We made a very tight bond with a 12 number of delegations, allowing us to become a solid bloc. The Czech Republic wrote the position papers and in the end, our ideas passed the vote. It was a success.

One thing that I enjoyed was the team-meetings that we had after our committee sessions.

It was a time when I can distress, and say what was on my mind. I would recommend that those are always included in the future. We meet with our teammates, talk about our day and give each other words of encouragement. The team dinner was quite pleasant, bonding over traditional

Czech Cuisine and distressing after the Conference. I made good friends with my teammates through the many team bonding activities.

The Czech Republic’s foreign policy and role in the United Nations is not a very unique one. The Czech are proud people, but the country is not a powerful one. The Czech Republic has their positions but instead of taking a firm stand, the Czech decides to support whichever powerful country supports their position. In many cases it is Germany or the United States. The fact that they do not have a firm position over the DPRK is not very plausible. However, I took great pride Czech firmness in the ideas of human rights, peaceful negotiation and state sovereignty.

The UN system is very challenging in terms of reaching consensus because there are so many countries with so many different positions. The MNUN Conference gave me an idea of what the United Nations is all about. It was everything that we learned in a classroom and then some. We had to put all the treaties, disagreements, and conflicts we previously learned into use when we debated against other delegations. It was a very hands on experience and one that opened my eyes on global diplomacy. One had to constantly caucus, debate, and reaffirm one’s position. It was very strenuous and frustrating at times. This is to be expected when you put all the nations of the world into one room. However, no matter how difficult it is to reach 13 Zhivkov agreement, it is much more preferable than war. Global diplomacy is hard, but the outcomes are peaceful and diplomatic.

This Conference was a very strenuous yet rewarding experience for me. I learned that I am capable of being a convincing speaker and I can sell an idea to another delegation. I can write position papers that others can support and I also have patience. Patience is such an important attribute because many people will require more explanation and convincing. I am very proud of my performance. Despite feeling annoyed and frustrated at times, I pushed through and made sure that the Czech Republic was heard. One very hard thing that I learned was that there are things beyond my control. One day I can be in complete control of a situation and the next I can fall out of favor. One time I really wanted to rise to adjourn the debate, just because the IAEA did not have any tangible power regarding North Korea. However, one has to learn, adapt and make the most of a given circumstance. That is exactly what Brianna and I did. I am proud to have been afforded such an amazing experience and I would gladly do it again. It made me a better delegate.

As for the future, I would recommend greater simulations and caucusing. We can have caucusing with the Delegates trying to sell their country’s position to the veteran Delegates. The veterans will portray different delegations and they will pose a challenge by offering rebuttals, debating, etc. Some will be nice, others a bit more hostile but it would give the team a sense of the type of people that one might encounter at the Conference. Also, it would give the team members greater practice of thinking on their feet and greater knowledge of their issue, the supporting details, etc. This form of caucusing should be done for all three issues, to ensure equal preparation. In addition, I would strongly encourage the continuation of the Stand and

Delivers because they helped me a lot and position paper writing workshops because they helped 14 to formulate my formal, diplomatic tongue. Last but not least, team building should be strongly encouraged and facilitated by delegates to ensure greater cohesiveness and strength as a team.