[CRISIS] JPSMUN 2015-2016 JPSMUN Sai Ganagoni President Aneesh Deshpande 1st Vice President Neehar Mahidadia Treasurer Vishesh Sharma Corresponding Secretary Roshan Shelley Recording Secretary [CRISIS] Page 1 [CRISIS] JPSMUN 2015-2016 Dear Delegates, I am pleased to welcome you to this year’s Annual Fall JPSMUN conference! Hours of preparation, planning, and organizing have gone into the making of this conference. Our JPSMUN staffers have worked tirelessly to ensure the best conference experience for all of you. Every year, JPSMUN seeks to expand on the previous conferences we’ve hosted to constantly improve and strive for excellence. With six committees, and for the first time ever a joint pseudo-crisis committee, I hope that all of you can find something you enjoy. Our staffers are eager to host all of you for a Saturday filled with debate, diplomacy, and compromise. JPSMUN is one of the premier Model United Nations team on the East Coast and is proud to have such a distinct and decorated legacy. With a history that spans over two decades, JPSMUN is one of the oldest and largest high-school conferences. From the microcosm of Edison, our delegates have developed a worldly perspective through discussions of international affairs. Model United Nations is a medium for people who share the interest of global issues and debating to express their thoughts in hopes of gaining new insight. As delegates, we not only learn from the topics that we research, but from each other as we compete to become the best that we can be. The reason I love Model United Nations is because it allows people to learn things about themselves as they experiment with different techniques. Ultimately, Model UN is a journey towards realizing how you want others to perceive you, and how you hope to shape the way that they do. Aside from welcoming you to the conference, I’d like to take the time to tell you about myself. I’m a senior at J. P. Stevens High School and I’ve been involved in Model UN since the sixth grade. As a tenor in the JPS Chamber Choir, and a member of the Student Council Executive Board, I engage in other pursuits to fulfill my desires in singing and student government. I believe that simply discussing change is not enough to ignite it, and thus spend my time interning at the South Asian Mental Health Initiative and Network to promote the awareness of mental illnesses and provide support for those coping with intangible illnesses. In my downtime, I enjoy watching House of Cards and Game of Thrones, and listening to Young the Giant and Alex Clare. In just a short couple of weeks, not only will you be head-to-head against some of the finest delegates in the circuit, but you will be faced with solving international crises that require your ingenuity. Regardless of skill level, I challenge you to put your best foot forward and actively participate in committee. Don’t just understand the topic, but know how to solve it with specific measures to provide clarity and direction to your committee. Use this background guide as the start of your intellectual journey, and by all means use other resources to augment your research. I dare you to not only envision the delegate you wish to become, but embody those qualities on the day of the conference. JPSMUN is a training conference, and your performance can only help you in the future. I wish you the best of luck in your preparation for this upcoming October JPSMUN! Sincerely, Sai Ganagoni Secretary-General John P. Stevens Model United Nations 2015-2016 [CRISIS] Page 2 [CRISIS] JPSMUN 2015-2016 Dear Delegates, My name is Ephany Wang and I will be serving as your Chair for the Irish Republican Army committee that you will be participating in at this October JPSMUN. I look forward to an exciting day of intense debate, high-stakes risks and interesting crises! The Irish Republican Army is a historical war cabinet that will require each and every delegate to enter committee fully prepared with both logistical and abstract intentions. Because the members of this committee each possess distinct areas of sovereignty as well as expertise, I strongly encourage risk-taking and unorthodox approaches. I also highly recommend coming “over” prepared (you can never be prepared enough for a crisis committee)! Before I get to know all of you soon, I’d like to introduce myself. I am currently a senior at John P. Stevens High School, and have been a participant in our JPSMUN community since my freshmen year. Four years ago, upon entering high school, I was lucky enough to have been able to participate in my first crisis committee that opened me up to an entirely different aspect of Model U.N that I had not known existed before. Crisis committees is a very peculiar world that divides world issues into a distinct world where every problem become both a very public and very private affair. What issues that may have appeared to be two-dimensional will become three-dimensional. I deeply hope that the candid nature of crisis committees that I fell in love with will be a quality that you, the delegates, will come to appreciate and pursue as well. Besides myself, I am honored to introduce my crisis director, Akshat Gokhale, and moderator, Ashley Shah. They are both highly accomplished delegates as individuals and have played a critical part in bringing the Irish Republican Army to life. And with that, Goodluck! (Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at [email protected]) Letter from the Crisis Manager Dear Delegates, It is an honor and privilege for me to serve as your Crisis Manager for the annual fall JPSMUN Crisis Committee! My name is Akshat Gokhale, and I am currently a junior at the Middlesex County Academy for SMET. I’ve been involved in Model United Nations for at least four years now. I started my MUN career in eighth grade at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, where I got the chance to attend my very first JPSMUN. Up till that point, MUN had been nothing more than a school club to me, something I’d do after school on Mondays just because I had nothing better to do. But after that first whiff of competition, intensity, and diplomacy, MUN suddenly became something more… it became a passion. [CRISIS] Page 3 [CRISIS] JPSMUN 2015-2016 My love for Model UN was only bolstered by my involvement in crisis, which I personally believe to be the pinnacle of my MUN experience. Crisis committees allow delegates to remove themselves from the abstract world of UN politics and diplomacy and actually take action. And, on top of that, crisis offers an eclectic assortment of committees to choose from, whether it be FBI agents combatting drug cartels in Mexico or the United States government saving refugees in Somalia. Besides Model UN, however, I’m heavily involved in Robotics, Math League, Debate Club, and FBLA. I can’t go a day without playing tabla (an Indian percussion instrument), and I stay involved in my community through a local non-profit, ONE Project. In my spare time, you’ll usually find me browsing through CNN and Bloomberg, or killing zombies in Black Ops. I am joined by my Director, Ephany Wang, and my Moderator, Ashley Shah. Both are active members of the JPSMUN community who have contributed numerous hours to making sure this committee is both fun and highly competitive. If you have any questions regarding committee or myself, please feel free to contact me at [email protected], and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Letter from the Moderator Dear Delegates, Welcome to the IRA crisis committee! My name is Ashley Shah and I will be serving as your moderator during this October JPSMUN. I cannot wait to hear all the great ideas you guys will bring to the table with fervor and diplomacy! The Irish Republican Army is in dire need of a renewal that your unique ideas will bring about! This crisis will allow each and everyone of you to enter a quicker more spontaneous divergent of model UN that I hope you all develop an appreciation, and perhaps even a love for! As a junior at J.P Stevens High School I am looking forward to teaching and spreading my passion for MUN. Not only am I looking forward to eloquent speeches and well-written directives, I am eagerly awaiting the negotiations and the debate. A little bit about myself, I am born and raised right here in Edison (BOREDison). Model UN has been a huge part of my life for the past 5 years and has taught me a great deal of things I hope to impart onto you. When I am not debating I am writing for the school newspaper, playing soccer for JP or dancing. Although I may be the only person in this club who doesn't watch House of cards you can always find me watching a rerun of Friends or Full House. I look forward to meeting you all soon and hope that you all come out of the conference as better debaters and intellectuals. Come prepared to act as professionally as those whom u will be representing and bring with you poise. If you [CRISIS] Page 4 [CRISIS] JPSMUN 2015-2016 have any questions please feel free to contact me at the email provided below! Happy Researching, Ashley Shah Email: [email protected] [CRISIS] Page 5 [CRISIS] JPSMUN 2015-2016 BACKGROUND GUIDE NOTE: Dear Delegates, This background guide is designed to History of the give you a brief glimpse of the history of the IRA, and provide you with a general I.R.A.