Model United Nations sends delegation to crisis simulation

Model United Nations, a student organization that provides opportunities to get involved in world politics and foreign affairs outside the classroom, recently sent eight of its members to the Brown University Crisis Simulation.

During the simulation, attendees engaged with scenarios and crises as they participated in committees that sought to solve past, present and future international problems. Many of the historical issues have had an impact on the world as we know it, while other scenarios may have emerging implications for diplomacy in the near future.

This is the second time that Model UN has participated in the Brown simulation, and the delegation was the largest since the club’s inception, made possible by a core group of active participants and growing club membership.

In addition to the Brown simulations, Model UN has also attended two Security Council Simulations at Yale University. “Salve’s delegations have continued to thrive and have garnered a reputation for diplomatic tact and professionalism among a wide array of other universities, colleges and institutions,” said Model UN member Ryan Ciocco, who served as head delegate to the Brown simulation.

In addition to Ciocco, the delegates were Sarah Christiana, Caroline Rogers, Milly Popa, Claire Horvath, Chase Mulvaney, Santiago Durango and Timothy Jaeger.

• Christiana and Horvath dealt with issues of Italian reunification in the 1800s and sought to balance the political ambitions of the emerging Italian nation-state and Napoleonic France.
• Rogers engaged with the direction of post-colonial India in the context of waning British influence during the 1940s.
• Popa and Mulvaney represented Austria and Colombia in the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, which involved debate surrounding cultural factors that have had an impact on the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court.
• Ciocco participated in the Algeciras Conference, which reimagined the conflict over Moroccan sovereignty between France and Germany in the early 1900s.
• Durango represented Denmark in the Arctic Council, dealing with issues of militarism, natural resources, indigenous populations and climate change.
• Jaeger was involved in articulating the need for Lithuania to declare independence from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“This conference provided an array of networking opportunities along with the chance for professional development, as the diplomatic skills learned in crisis committees have many applications for the real world,” Ciocco said.

Participation was made possible by the Department of Political Science and International Relations under the guidance of Dr. Clark Merrill.