Mr. Clifford Harding, Chair
cvh4@northwestern.edu


The United States National Security Council, since its conception under the Truman Administration, is the President's main advisory board and is responsible for making the political decisions that shape the nation's domestic and foreign policy. The United States National Security Council has twelve members including the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General, National Security Adviser, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of the CIA, Chief of Staff of the President, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Deputy Secretary of State, and the Ambassador to the United Nations.



The USNSC is not a part of the United Nations, and its main job is to be a forum for discussion. Therefore, we will not be exactly following the typical rules set down by the UN charter or by the secretariat in the delegate handbook. Instead, the Council will be run in an ad-hoc permanent moderated caucus with motions to suspend the rules to allow for more structured debate or unmoderated caucusing as needed.

Also, the USNSC deals with a variety of issues that are brought up either by pressing events or by members of the council. To accommodate this, the position papers submitted will vary slightly from the format described in the delegate manual. I have included three topics of recent significance to the United States, however, in addition to addressing these topics, I also want each delegate to research and develop one additional topic. This topic should be of importance to the member's position on the council. For the format of position papers, please arrange them as follows:
1. A background of the topic
2. Your position on the topic
3. Suggested actions and their implications

Also, since some of the topics that we may discuss will be the suggestions of members, please submit your position papers electronically by the Online Position Paper Submission page.



Mohamed el-Baradei, the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has stipulated that Iran could be only "a few months" from obtaining nuclear weapon capability. El-Baradei has cited the near completion of the construction of the Natanz nuclear facility that was said to have begun in 2000. This facility has been accused of being a plutonium and uranium enrichment facility.



Many US officials have been calling the situation in Darfur genocide. Bush administration efforts to broker a peace settlement between the government and the rebels in Darfur have largely failed. The current African Union peacekeeping force of around 7,000 is outnumbered and under-equipped. The region is facing genocide of the magnitude seen in Rwanda in 1994.



Many people are labeling China as a currency manipulator and are calling for economic sanctions. The Bush administration on Nov 28th 2005 ruled that China did not meet the "technical requirements" that define a country to be managing its currency to gain unfair trade advantages. Many people are calling for the situation to be reevaluated prior to the deadline for the next report in April.