SECTION I – INTRODUCTION A note from the leader of SOMA Crisis Dear delegates, Welcome to SOMA XLVIII 2.0’s Joint Crisis committee on the Future American Civil War. After multiple challenges in planning, re-structuring and organization, we’re very happy to hold SOMA’s first online crisis session from April 23rd through 25th this year. Despite the lockdown, the covid-restrictions, the zoom fatigue and the senioritis, we were able to scrape through and write this background guide for what we hope will be an enlightening 3 days in committee. We wish you well in your preparations, and are hoping for a smooth committee experience for everyone in April. I first joined SOMA as a delegate in Grade 9, and represented Ethiopia in the UN General Assembly. MUN was nerve-wracking at first, but I’m happy I’ve grown both as a delegate and as a conference planner since then. I’ve learned so much about global issues, educated myself on topics occurring thousands of kilometres away from me, and become a better citizen: by being more invested in the community around me, largely thanks to MUN. Although I was really disheartened with SOMA being cancelled last year, I’m extremely happy with the progress we’ve made this year, and am proud of the crisis this year. Usually, in any ordinary year, we’d pick a historical event for our joint crisis. This year, however, is far from usual and ordinary, so we chose to do something different. Instead of focusing on a stuffy, unknown historical event that would require immense amounts of academic research for both us and delegates, we’ve decided to make our own hypothetical, imaginative future event - a future civil war in the United States! In making the plotline and characters for this “future crisis” we’ve combined research with compelling storylines and some humour. It’s important to stress that we *are not clairvoyants nor astrologers* so if our predictions for the future come out to be wildly inaccurate, please do not hold us accountable for it. In imagining a “future crisis” we wanted it to be entertaining but also thought provoking. This past year, we’ve seen many changes in America - some that are heartening and for the better, others which are scary. We hope that our committee will lead delegates to truly ponder on the future of the USA, and figure out ways to heal the deep divides and contradictions underlying the world’s most powerful country. It’s important to stress that I would not have been able to do any of this without the immense hard work, talent and intelligence from the 2021 SOMA Joint Crisis Team. Phoebe Priest (Grade 12), our Senior Director of Crisis, and co-leader of Joint Crisis, thank you so much for all your support this year. Our committee would not have functioned without your diligence, motivation, and ability to push us through some of the most difficult moments. I would also be remiss without mentioning Robert Jarvi (Grade 12), who helped us immensely with planning our committee, creating our storyline, and writing this very background. As well, we’d like to give an immense thanks to our chairs for our Joint Crisis - Brayden Zhang, Matthew Chen, Evelyn Fallah, & Sarah Hamdi - for their hard work, preparation, time, and for volunteering to grow their leadership skills. They are all first time chairs but are extremely excited to lead the committee this year. In some ways, they remind me of when I was first a chair two years ago, and hope they can gain the confidence that I did too. I’m truly indebted to SOMA for all these reasons, for all the things I’ve gained these past few years. I hope this year’s Crisis is as awesome as possible for you as delegates! Sincerely, Anirudh Ram-Mohanram - Undersecretary General of Crisis With significant support from Phoebe Priest - Senior Crisis Director Robert Jarvi - Junior Crisis Director Introduction – What is Crisis? The Joint Crisis for SOMA XLVIII is a future-based American Civil War Crisis based in the year 2024. This committee aims to discuss and solve the potential issues within the United States of America as it recovers from the devastating social, political, and economic effects of the early 2020’s. Delegates will be tasked with fulfilling the needs of the states they will represent as senators during the civil unrest following the assasination of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in early 2024. The following background contains a foreword from the directors of SOMA XLVIII Crisis, a general overview of what a Crisis committee entails, instructions and procedures for online Crisis committees, and an overview of the hypothetical storyline we’ve imagined from 2020-2024 and specific instructions for both sides of the joint crisis (the United Democratic States of America and the Holy Republican States of America). Please use this background guide, as well as the guiding sections and character guides that will be provided later to write your position papers. For those of you unfamiliar with the procedures of a Crisis, this committee differs significantly from typical Model UN committees, such as the General Assembly or the Security Council. Rather than representing various countries in larger UN assemblies, you will be representing individual characters discussing hyper-specific issues. Crisis is fast paced, instead of picking topics and then debating them, topics are thrown at you and delegates are forced to respond. The storyline occurs in the format of “crisis updates”, which are updated aspects of the storyline shared with delegates every hour or so. We will be making short videos, as well as frequent updated on our crisis twitter page to send these crisis updates to you. Furthermore, in crisis there are “timed crisis”, where delegates will be given a crisis (i.e. a war, or a flood) and given a select amount of time (15 mins, 30 mins) to draft a proper resolution to it. Furthermore, delegates are able to send “private directives”, where they can privately move resources, or perform actions without the rest of the committee knowing. This year, the private directives will be sent via email to various members of our Crisis Staff, who will then respond with approving or disapproving the private directive’s measures. Finally, instead of the working papers and resolutions, delegates will write and pass public directives. Public directives are larger drafts of papers that multiple delegates work on to solve various issues in the committee. There will be time during unmoderated caucuses for delegates to finish writing public directives and then presenting them to the committee. We try to simulate every aspect of a historical conflict, through economic, political, or military conquest. You will each play the role of a powerful politician (they’re all currently alive) who lived through the period of 2021-2024 leading up to the 2nd American Civil war. You will have a chance to reshape history from the beginning of the crisis in 2024, onwards. As your characters, you will create propaganda and large electoral campaigns, ensure the success of your new American legion, try to acquire new states for your side, and eventually regain control of the entire USA through military campaigns. As this is a joint crisis, both the UDSA (democrats) and the HRSA (republicans) will be in separate online committee “rooms” (zoom calls), but communications between the two sides will be possible and frequent updates will be sent. Some cross-committee interaction will be in order. The actions of one committee will invariably affect the events occurring in the other, as the two sides are essentially fighting for control of the USA. One side will be declared the winner at the end of the committee, depending on how successful the delegates are in achieving their goals. Please make sure to read the entire background guide so that you may understand the committee structure and procedure (especially for delegates new to the crisis format or unfamiliar with US politics). If you have any pressing concerns or questions about the committee, please feel free to email us at [email protected] and [email protected]. Content Warning - Equity and Sensitivity As delegates will be playing the role of various US politicians, it is important to discuss how one can represent the problematic, destructive, bigoted and extremist views of many politicians without unintentionally or unironically perpetuating the same forms of bigotry. We must stress that sensitivity is needed, but besides this, it is okay to represent the problematic views of some politicians so long as it makes sense for your character given their background. Under no circumstances should you yourself make racist, homophobic, misgynist or problematic comments aside from when your voicing the opinions of the character. Please be mindful of other delegates, and under no circumstances should you use any form of slurs or mockery designed to denigrate a racial, religious, ethnic, gender, or sexuality-based group. It can be a tricky job, so please consult your chairs and the crisis directors first if you have something you want to share in a speech that you feel might be problematic. If the behaviour of other delegates is making you uncomfortable - feel free to reach out to us during the conference and we’ll make sure to remedy all equity concerns. As SOMA is committed to social justice and mutual understanding, we will also be monitoring and taking feedback to make sure everyone is comfortable. Online Crisis Procedures – How will crisis work this year? Crisis committees differ greatly from other Model UN committees.