De Legatus Model United Nations 2023
The General Assembly
De Legatus Model United Nations 2023
The General Assembly
A LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY GENERAL
Dear Delegates,
It is my honour to welcome you to DELMUN 2023! My name is XXXXX and I am excited to
meet each and every one of you this 24th as your Secretary General. My goal is to make sure you
all have fun and learn lots at this year’s conference!.
I have taken part in a few MUNs; a few college level and some school level MUNS. I want
delegates to push the boundaries and propose radical ideas that the world has not heard before. I
am here as a resource to you while you prepare for committee, debate, write position papers, and
beyond. I am so excited to see you all at the conference and I want to encourage you to reach out
to me with any questions or concerns you might have or to just introduce yourself to me!
DELMUN provides you with an opportunity to expand your horizons and to think beyond limits;
to look at problems from different perspectives and arrive at creative and innovative solutions
through consensus. Our efforts to empower each one of you to become global citizens and young
leaders who think critically yet with empathy, builds upon our underlying vision - ‘Engage in
dialogue, foster tolerance and build leaders’.
At DELMUN, we believe that the most important qualities of a good delegate are diplomacy and
the ability and willingness to negotiate. It is not the loudest voice or the most dominating
presence in the room that matters, but a delegate who can put forth not only their own points, but
also listen and take into consideration those of others. We believe that MUN should be a platform
to develop and strengthen your skills of research, public speaking and debate, no matter the level
of experience you enter a conference with, and our goal is to help you achieve the same.
While awards may be an integral part of MUN, they are not the end of it. Beyond awards, we
hope you take home with you and cherish the memories made, the lessons learnt and the
experiences gained here at DEL-MUN. It is your passion and dedication that will inspire the spirit
of this conference and make it a flying success.
XXX,
Secretary General,
De Legatus Model United Nations, 2023
De Legatus Model United Nations 2023
The General Assembly
DISARMAMENT AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY COMMITTEE
AGENDA: Nuclear Proliferation and the Viability of the NPT
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to the Disarmament and International Security Committee at DELMUN 2023!
My name is XXXX and I’m thrilled to be your director for DISEC this year.
My goal as a director of a committee is to provide a transformative and educational
experience for the delegates in my committee. However, you will not be the only ones
learning. I want to thank you in advance for the transformative and educational experience
that I, myself, will have all because of you! I can sincerely say that my favourite part of
my travels through Model UN has been meeting incredible delegates like yourselves –I am
counting down the days until we get to embark on this exciting journey through DISEC
together. Model UN teaches students the invaluable skills of negotiating and public
speaking, but more importantly, MUN teaches in delegates the intricacies of what it takes
to solve the world’s most pressing international issues. Throughout this conference, you
will be challenged to think outside of the box as you step into the shoes of global leaders,
shoes that you one day will actually fill. This is meant to be an educational experience, not
just a competition. You will be rewarded in the committee if you cooperate - I value
collaboration above all else. This is not the time to be the loudest voice. Instead, be the
ears that hear everyone’s ideas and bring them together to create a cohesive resolution. I
look forward to watching the debate unfold. Please do not hesitate to reach out via email if
you have any questions at all.
XXXX,
Director,
Disarmament and International Security Committee,
De Legatus Model United Nations 2023
De Legatus Model United Nations 2023
The General Assembly
INTRODUCTION
History is testament to the catastrophe that nuclear weaponry can cause. Although treaties
like the NPT and committees like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
have been instituted to restrict their usage, doubts and fear remain. There is the question of
why selective countries are allowed to possess such
destructive weapons while others are not, as well as
why there is a need for such weapons to exist in the
first place. Existing treaties also pose questions as to
their utility in changing modern times, as well as
their implementation and possible loopholes within
their clauses. It is in the hands of the delegates how
they choose to proceed with said questions, with the
eventual end goal of making the world a little safer
and more peaceful by the end of it. Especially given
the volatile state of the problem, delegates will be expected to know all recent happenings,
and also be able to think on their feet, given any hypothetical stimulus of change or
development in the topic.
COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
The Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) is the First Committee
of the United Nations General Assembly, which means it includes all member states,
and can also host and open the floor to other entities/parties which a topic area or debate
might be central to. The Disarmament and International Security Committee will operate
as a general, conventional General Assembly committee of the United Nations, in that
every nation participating will hold an equal vote, be able to deliver speeches, and
participate in the drafting of documentation to be proposed for signing and ratifying by the
committee as a whole. This will include general debate on the topic, divided further into
moderated and unmoderated caucuses, as well as action on drafts, which will constitute
first writing up drafts of resolutions for consideration of the committee, and then debating
over them to vote and hopefully pass them as the committee.
Position Papers are to be submitted prior to committee session on or before 17
November 2023, 23:59 hrs. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited and delegates are
advised to refrain from using generative AI or any such tools. The content should not
exceed 2 pages including bibliography.
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The committee will begin with a Speakers List as well as moderated caucuses for
delegates to offer initial positions on behalf of the countries that they will be representing.
Delegates can form blocs with delegates of other countries with similar interests to draft
resolutions and present them in the committee. Presentations of the draft resolutions along
with a Q&A session will take place in a committee session later in the day. Voting will
occur once all the draft resolutions have been presented to all blocs. Delegates will be able
to defend their draft resolutions as well as criticise and question the validity of other draft
resolutions.
HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE
The Disarmament and International Security Committee is the First Committee of the
United Nations General Assembly, which is further one of six principal organs of the
United Nations organisation as a whole. It was established 77 years ago, in 1945, in the
aftermath of World War II, when the League of Nations had been disbanded and a new
organisation formed with the intent of more productively ensuring peace and safety of all
citizens around the globe, projecting a new ray of hope, protection, and humanity’s unity
through the shaken world. The General Assembly has seen its fair share of conflict,
controversy, and conflict resolution. As the assembly was tasked with the most
overarching questions of global safety and security, this translates into the mandate of the
assembly being very broad and wide-reaching. Furthermore, the objective of passing
resolutions has often been prioritised to maintaining truth and real stances by countries
which would have a more pronounced impact in practicality. This has been the subject of
criticism by even past Secretaries General, such as in 2005 when United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan said that the General Assembly was focusing so much on consensus
that it was passing watered-down resolutions reflecting “the lowest common denominator
of widely different opinions”. The Disarmament and International Security Committee
specifically has historically been charged with dealing with disarmament, global
challenges and threats to peace that affect the international community, and seeking out
challenges to challenges in the international security regime. More specifically, its
mandate falls into seven thematic clusters, namely nuclear weapons, other weapons of
mass destruction, outer space, conventional weapons, regional disarmament and security,
other disarmament measures and international security, and disarmament machinery. In
summation, it deals with the disarmament of all kinds of weapons, and solving problems
of international security. The Disarmament and International Security Committee has two
main sub-bodies that report to it also, namely the Disarmament Commission (UNDC), and
the Conference on Disarmament (CD), and can also accept reports from other bodies it
decides or commissions for specific problems or topics.
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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said, “I know not with what weapons World War
III will be fought, But World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” From sticks
and stones to bows and arrows and from canons to sniper rifles, the change in weaponry
and subsequent scales of warfare could not have changed more through the brief time
humanity has spent on this Earth. The advent and concept of war, however, looms larger
than ever in the world, with geopolitical conflict and strife, inequality, economic tensions,
and territorial disputes all ensuring that the volatility of international peace hangs on by
threads more than ever. However, no matter what inventions were made in the field of
weaponry and destruction, none can come close to having as loud an impact as that of the
nuclear bomb. Possessing capabilities of destruction unheard of or merely even thought of
a hundred years ago, nuclear weapons have completely lopsided the environment of
warfare in today’s day and age, serving as both a deterrent and a nightmare for millions
everywhere. Moral questions of whether such power of destruction should be allowed in
any human’s hands are posed regularly, as well as criticisms of the exclusivity of
possession of said weapons in the hands of a mere few. At the end of the day, however, the
status quo is a dangerous, terrifying, and unbalanced scale of power, and it will be in the
hands of the delegates of the Disarmament and International Security Committee to decide
whether they want to continue propagating said status quo, or make changes to bring peace
and comfort to the minds of millions around the globe through solutions of proliferation,
peace, and harmony.
The rise of the physical sciences and the technological developmental era of the 1900’s
spurred into the world a multitude of inventions and discoveries ranging from healthcare to
security. However, the creation with the greatest impact on international security and
prosperity is the development of nuclear weapons of mass
destruction. With the advent of the Manhattan Project in the
United States, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer and including a
group of top contemporary scientists as well as some exiles
from Europe, the intention of this mission at Los Alamos
National Laboratory was to produce fission-based explosives
before the strategic adversary, Germany, could. It was this
project that, in 1945, despite being months away from
finalisation and conclusion, led to the singular real-world
usage of nuclear weaponry man has seen in history. In August
of 1945, The United States conducted nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to
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decisively end the second World War. The two nuclear bombs dropped on the Japanese
cities resulted in the instantaneous deaths of over 100,000 civilians upon impact with
radiation and other aftermath effects of the atomic weapons leading to tens of thousands of
deaths. Almost concurrently, there was also a project going on on the other side of the
globe, behind the iron curtain, in the Soviet Union, which was developing its own nuclear
weapons. The Soviet Union was not invited to join in on the Manhattan Project with the
Western nations, although they were on the same side of the ongoing war against the Axis
Powers of Germany and Imperial Japan. It was feared that if the Soviet Union were to
acquire nuclear weapons along with the other world powers, nothing would stop the
Communist nation from spreading its ideology through the employment of tactical atomic
bombs.
Although initially only in the form of surface-to-surface missiles, nuclear weaponry has
seen significant development since then. The range of nuclear missiles have been
increasing alongside their efficacy, deployment speed, and stealth. Along with these
technological developments, countries across the globe have also made early warning
systems and defence mechanisms, with nuclear weapon transportation receiving a
monumental upgrade with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with a variety of capabilities
in range, warhead yield, and reentry speed.
Aside from the development of nuclear weapons,
there have been several cases of nuclear accidents
and unintentional fallouts which have caused mass
radiation and damage to nearby areas. The most
significant, perhaps, is the Chernobyl accident of
1986 in the Soviet Union, which was rated at 7,
being the maximum rating, of the International
Nuclear Event Scale. The meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was entirely
due to the poor standards of reactor maintenance upheld and perpetuated by the Soviet
Union. The systems that were designed to regulate power output and control the safety
measures across the power plant were shut down. Because no safety systems in place were
active, the reactor continued to function until it spiralled out of control. The technicians
were unable to control the unstable reactor, leading to the meltdown. While there have
been several nuclear accidents throughout history such as the incidents at Fukushima and
Three Mile Island, the destruction of the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl remains the
worst accident.
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UN / INTERNATIONAL ACTION
Perhaps the most influential piece of law written up on this topic is the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It was drafted with the intent of nuclear
peace on the global stage, and its agenda in basic terms is that non-nuclear countries agree
to not develop any weapons, while in exchange nuclear-possessing countries agree to share
the technology for the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology, that being a much clear,
efficient source of energy in this world depleted of fossil fuels and mindful of its adverse
effects on climate change and the environment, and also to pursue nuclear disarmament
with the goal of ultimate elimination of all their nuclear arsenals.
As such, it deals mainly with three sub-topics of the nuclear debate, which are
non-proliferation, disarmament, and the peaceful use of nuclear technology. One of the key
problems with the treaty is that four countries have not signed it, which, although may
seem an insignificant number, is vital when the countries themselves are noticed. India,
Pakistan, Israel, and South Sudan, are the four nations who have chosen not to serve as
signatories to the treaty. India and Pakistan have publicly disclosed their possession of
nuclear weapons, while Israel has long been known to have maintained a deliberate
ambiguity of their nuclear program despite much proof. Additionally, the current make-up
of the treaty itself is such that its vagueness and ambiguity on several key points lends to a
status quo where countries are not actively pursuing disarmament despite the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons asking them to, and there still being much tension
about the exclusivity of nuclear technology and warfare.
There was also an earlier treaty, the Partial Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty of 1963, which banned all underground
testing of nuclear weapons. This also reminds us of the
danger of not only nuclear weapon usage on civilians
and its subsequent use for genocide, but also the danger
nuclear testing poses, even when done a far distance
away from civilization. This includes gross climate
impacts, radioactive emissions, and much more. This
was followed up by the later Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1996, which set
even broader and stricter regulations on the testing of nuclear weaponry by any country.
The United Nations also established a body, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), to specifically look at all matters related to or dealing with
nuclear warfare or energy, which sits and discusses such topics frequently. It
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came into being to implement US President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace”
proposal. Many nations have also been declared “Nuclear Weapon Free Zones,” where
nuclear weapons cannot be launched, which may include countries that are unstable states
or conflict zones.
CASE STUDIES OF COUNTRIES
Although the nuclear tension between the United States and Russia is frequently brought
up, it is often forgotten that other countries too possess similar weapons when it comes to
scale of destruction. These are all of the P5 countries, the permanent members of the UN
Security Council which consist of the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and
China. Other nuclear-capable countries also include North Korea, India, Pakistan, and
Israel. Although the country is not officially considered as a nuclear-capable nation, Israel
is nonetheless globally-recognized as one. Speculation has also arisen about Iran’s
potential possession of nuclear arms, which turned into a global controversy and point of
contention thanks to the infamous Iran Nuclear Deal. Officially termed the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement was originally signed between
Iran and the P5+1 countries, with the +1 being Germany. The nuclear deal put forth the
agenda that Iran stop enriching uranium at the mass extent the P5 countries thought it was
involved in and opened itself up to regular transparency and accountability checks by the
International Atomic Energy Agency. Although the Iranian government and other
proponents of privacy and anti-exclusivity argued that Iran was merely developing means
of peaceful nuclear energy and that it was unfair of larger powers to impose such
restrictions on its nuclear energy programs, an accountability apparatus was nevertheless
installed.
AREA OF REFORM
The Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, although it was established in the
right direction, leaves much to be desired when it comes to the modern status quo and the
quick development of technology in the nuclear sector. Additionally, even within its
original framework and legal point of view, there are several loopholes or areas of severe
ambiguity which translate to a world where countries can come up with their own
interpretations of laws as they see fit and suitable to their personal agendas or interests.
Furthermore, the eventual goal of disarmament seems nothing more like a distant,
idealistic dream as current situations stand. Said loopholes could be amended, appended
to, or looked at when further legislature is drawn up or drafted on the matter. The issue of
bringing countries with robust nuclear arsenal or countries with the intent of making one to
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the table for negotiations in order to reach a consensus is an area of concern that must be
focused on. All the nations who possess atomic bombs in the current status quo believe
very intently in their own rights and reasons to possess weapons of mass destruction.
These same countries also have not shown intent to change anything unless the other
powers do as well, leading to a “tit-for-tat” situation where every player is stuck in a limbo
of inaction and almost indifference towards the “lesser” powers of the world. The current
world situation of nuclear proliferation must be dealt with in order to take steps towards
the seemingly unachievable goal of total nonproliferation.
QUESTIONS A RESOLUTION SHOULD ANSWER
1. Should countries be allowed to possess nuclear weapons, given the prospect of violence
of the greatest scale, and the potential of genocide and mass tragedy?
2. If so, to what extent should countries be allowed to develop such programs and with
what limitations?
3. Is a First Use Policy virtuous in nature and should it be implemented? If yes, how
should there be a check established?
4. What are the adverse effects of nuclear testing, and where should lines be drawn with
regards to it?
5. Is it fair for there to exist the current exclusivity of nuclear weaponry, placing it in the
hands of very few?
6. Should countries be allowed to develop nuclear programs for peaceful usage and energy,
and how can transparency be ensured to maintain the peaceful nature of any such possible
programs?
7. Are existing treaties and frameworks substantial and sufficient for today’s global
climate and status quo, or do they need amendments or replacements?
8. Are there any loopholes in the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and
how can it be strengthened as the legal framework of nuclear law?