Mr. Nomaan Merchant, Chair
n-merchant@northwestern.edu


Greetings delegates!

On behalf of the moderator and vice-chairs, I would like to welcome you to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly – Disarmament and International Security (commonly referred to as Disec). My name is Nomaan Merchant and I will serve as your chair for the duration of NUMUN III. Some quick information about me – I’m a journalism student hailing from Skokie, Illinois, and throughout high school Model United Nations was one of my main interests. In fact, I attended the inaugural conference hosted by Northwestern two years ago.

As its title suggests, Disec deals with issues of nuclear proliferation and global stability. Our two topics during the conference deal directly with the issue of nuclear weapons, so it goes (almost) without saying that every delegate should possess a strong knowledge of the nuclear status of the state he or she represents. As a representative of an entire government, you should also understand strongly the position of your assigned state on our two topics. Model UN isn’t about your opinions on a topic, but rather the opinions of the state you represent. So if you’re representing Costa Rica for your example, which doesn’t have much of an army, you probably shouldn’t promote the use of military force against a belligerent state. (In case you’re wondering, I tried doing this during my first conference.)

Both topics for this year’s committee mirror issues being debated in the actual United Nations, but I would recommend that you don’t look at the resolutions posted on-line, as it may hinder your own creativity in finding solutions to the topics at hand. Though there will be some similarities between your final resolutions and those of the actual UN, we want you to take a fresh approach to solving these problems. Other than that, look through the background papers on each topic along with the citations I’ve provided for you as you put together your topic papers.

I look forward to reading your work in the coming weeks, and feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Nomaan Merchant
Chair, First Committee, General Assembly
Disarmament and International Security