Unit 3: Foundational Skills for Model United Nations

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The Model United Nations experience is designed to cultivate policymaking skills that can be applied at multiple levels of political life — from your neighborhood PTA meeting to the UN General Assembly. To succeed in Model UN, as well as in policymaking elsewhere, you will need to develop the following foundational skills:

  1. Understanding the Rules and Making Them Work for You. Like most formal political processes, Model UN conferences operate according to strict Rules of Procedure. In order to participate, you need to understand how they work and feel confident and comfortable using them. To learn how, click here.
  2. Making Compelling, Informative Speeches. To communicate your country’s policy recommendations to your committee, you will need to learn how to give compelling speeches in the context of formal debate. To learn how, click here.
  3. Caucusing Efficiently. Much of the business of your committee happens in the informal negotiations that happen while formal debate is suspended — we call this “caucusing.” Knowing how to do this effectively and efficiently, treading the line between being businesslike and friendly is an important skill. To learn how, click here.
  4. Conducting Yourself Diplomatically. Your behavior and speech in a diplomatic setting like Model UN should be carefully calibrated to build consensus, resolve problems and deescalate conflict. To learn how, click here.
  5. Understanding Strategy and Tactics. Getting what your country wants out of your committee involves thinking very carefully about strategy and tactics to guide your activities efficiently. To learn how, click here.
  6. Writing Clear and Coherent Resolutions, Reports and/or Treaties. The final product of your work in committee will be a collectively authored document to be voted on at the end of the conference. This may be a resolution, report or treaty. To learn how to write a resolution, click here. For a report click here; for a treaty click here.

Now visit the following other pages in Unit 3 of this handbook:

(c) Pace University, 2013. Version 3.0 BETA. For information, permissions or corrections, contact Dr. Matthew Bolton, mbolton@pace.edu