Chair’s Letter Dear Delegates, We are delighted to welcome you to the World War III fantasy committee at the third annual Kent School Model United Nations Conference. Your chairs for this committee are Sarah Smith and Nebeeka Saha. This committee deals with the aftermath of a possible World War III. With the way that the United States has interacted with other countries recently, many citizens are concerned of the possibilities of an uprising war with the rising power, China. This is mainly due to the trade war involving the United States and China. As two large and powerful countries, the United States and China seem unlikely to go to war without involving allies. Moreover, not only is the war itself important for this committee, but so is the aftermath. With the shock of a bomb at the White House and the death of key government leaders, delegates will be asked to not only resolve this crisis, but also investigate the origins of this disaster, all the while maintaining their position. Since this committee is mostly fiction, we are here to challenge your critical and creative thinking. We do ask that you thoroughly read through this background guide and further research the position that you have been given. This allows delegates to begin their in depth research on who they will be representing within the our committee’s discussions. Make sure that any notes or information you have on your position are printed beforehand, as no electronics are permitted within the committee room. If you have trouble following anything in the discussion you may ask your dias for help. We encourage questions and curiosity to help further everyone’s understanding of debate. Each delegate is expected to write a one page, double-spaced position paper on how the government should be rebuilt from the very bottom after the bombing and how to investigate the culprit, including who you suspect the bomber to be. We encourage delegates to be creative with this paper! If you have any questions or see any problems within the background guide, please don’t hesitate to contact me, your chairs, or any other member of Kent School Model United Nations. We look forward to hosting you at this year’s conference! Your chairs, Sarah Smith’ 20 [email protected] Nebeeka Saha’ 20 [email protected] Introduction Ten years in the future, the U.S. government takes part in the third World War, thus resulting in an internal stalemate for the last decade. As one of the largest world powers for many decades, the United States felt tensions rise as China grew to prominence. Tensions furthered when the United States entered a trade war with China, one of the largest economies, due to their continued increase in tariffs on the large amount of exported goods. This is a world war, meaning multiple countries around the world are included. This is due to the long history that these countries have in war, where they’ve gained multiple allies and enemies that could be involved if a war actually plays out. The United States has France, England, and Germany on their side. The France and U.S. have maintained a strong relationship since the American Revolution in 1776. The U.S., France and Britain have teamed up together in past wars before, mainly World War II. Germany would possibly join the U.S. in this war due to both countries being largely democratic. China’s side includes North Korea, Russia and Pakistan. North Korea would join China due to China’s large amount of control over North Korea since China is its main trade resource and therefore, it’s North Korea’s source of food. Russia and China have had relations since 1991 and have been seen to be in a mutual partnership. Pakistan and China have been shown to have beneficial relations since 1950. Background Information The year is 2029 and for the past ten years the world has been full of chaos due to World War III. The war first began with conflict among the world powers–United States of America and China. Throughout their long trading history, these two countries caused tensions by raising tariffs on imported goods, which eventually led to a trade war. China boldly decided to cut off all trading ties with the U.S. in 2019 after Trump raised tariffs so high that it cost more to export the goods than what they were receiving. The U.S. was left with a large economic hole. Allies of China include North Korea, Russia, and Pakistan, while the United States is joined by France, England and Germany. Since the U.S. is geographically the farthest away from these other countries, the lowest amount of battles were fought in the States. Battles occurred largely in China and Russia due to their large territory. The U.S. became the forerunner to win this war due to their unique military tactics (the use of Nuclear bombs won’t be used due to an agreement made beforehand between competing countries) The U.S. barred communications between North Korea and China, cutting North Korea off as an ally of China. A treaty was set to be signed in Washington D.C. between President Trump and Xi Jinping, but when Trump and his cabinet waited for the Chinese government to arrive, a bomb sent to the White House left most of the United States executive officials killed or severely wounded. Fortunately, while the White House was bombed, your following positions were away at one of our allies’ countries thanking them for their help in the war. Therefore, you were all saved from the bombing and with all of those in a higher position having been killed or too wounded to hold up their position, you are the next in line to step up during this country’s time of need. Topics for Debate Rebuilding government after bombing - Due to the massive amount of damage that the bomb has on Washington DC the government as been destroyed. The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch have all been killed so what is next? The delegates can chose to keep the United States government the same as it has always been or create a whole new type of government that will help the country and create a quick repair. How to handle citizens - With the country’s fate in your hands you will need to tell citizens what is going on, and even when you delegates don’t know necessarily what happened, you will need to organize the country and make citizens calm again. Delegates should keep in mind that they have full control of all aspects of the United States government and what they do will be heavily watched by the media. The key to allowing these delegates to start discovering who bombed the White House is keeping the citizens out of the way. Discovering who did the bombing - With all that you know from what happened during the war you will have to come to the conclusion of what country bombed the White House. We encourage delegates to think outside the box and take in not only what happened during the war, but other reasons for such bombing of the US government. Delegates should include their theory of who bombed the White House in their position paper, therefore, the delegates should be thinking of this before entering the debate. With this being a crisis committee, the delegates will have a chance to get more information during their debate, which will help them come to this conclusion. Discovering why the bombings occurred - Figuring out who did the bombing is only half the battle, the delegates will then have to understand the reason why. This can be due to the smallest issues that would make the country conflict. Don’t narrow yourself to just the country’s involved in the war, but think about any country and group of people that may have a reason to bomb and destroy the current government. Maintaining Peace - How will the American government change the way it has treated countries like China to ensure another catastrophic war like this will not happen again in the future? Will you decide to enforce harsher laws or leave them alone? Deciding on How to Punish the Bomber - After deciding on who and where the bomber is from you must decide on what approach we should take to make sure they are no longer a threat. War Debt - Who should be responsible for the war debt? Should China and its allies pay for war damage? Unsigned Treaty - With the United States in shambles before the treaty could have been signed to end World War III the war is still ongoing. It is up to the delegates to consider their current involvement in the war. Ending the war would take a lot of pressure off of the U.S., but does the U.S. government still trust China? Defending the government - While you and your fellow cabinet members are deciding your next move in this war, how will you prevent other nations from taking advantage of you? If a state government tries to cause an uproar, how will you keep the country intact? Potential Scenarios - Delegates should take these scenarios into consideration when doing extra research and taking notes on key points that they would like to bring into the debate. - Citizen uproar and inciting political havoc - Outside countries taking advantage of the U.S. lack of governmental structure - U.S. having to deal with all the war damage and repair - Possible ideas on ending the war, such as treaties - China and its allies going against the treaty and possibly bombing the U.S.