MUN Institute – Merit Scholarship Winners!

The Model United Nations Institute is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 MUN Institute Essay Contest.

Students from around the world shared their opinions on the World’s greatest problems and What the United Nations can do to solve them. The students who entered the contest presented well informed compositions on global issues tackling issues of poverty, war, gender inequality, mental illness, water sanitation, and even the UN itself.

Our First place High School winner is Oliver Xie an 11th grade student from Dr. Phillips High School.

The United Nations responds to some of the world’s largest and most challenging issues – humanitarian, economic, or political. It is an institution embodying the idea of international cooperation and goodwill. Yet the greatest challenge we face today is this body. The issue is not that the United Nations has not done enough; the issue is that the United Nations cannot do enough. There is an inherent lethargy built right into the bureaucratic core of the United Nations. The need for common consensus among all nations on all issues often times creates a political quagmire, into which topics that require urgent discussion and resolution fall and never emerge again. While the United Nations has its successes, its failures are many, and spectacularly tragic. Hence, to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, the United Nations must first solve itself.

On the issues that most matter to our world, the United Nations has acted slowly and indecisively. When it does act, it is often times too little, too late. Perhaps most tragically was the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which the United Nations refused to strengthen its position, even when genocides were happening. Security Council Resolution 935, passed during the midst of the genocide, acknowledged the killings, yet only called for “the Secretary-General to establish… an impartial Commission of Experts to examine and analyse information,” (S/RES/935) a remarkably bland and indecisive statement. In fact, the commander of UNAMIR Romeo Dallaire, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda, had informed the Secretary General via the “Genocide Fax” the possibility of a massacre, months before its actual occurrence (National Security Archive, GWU). In the fax, he recommended raiding weapon caches to disrupt the planned genocide. The fax received a lukewarm response from the Secretary-General, who recommended the continued use of UNAMIR as “deterrence” and did not authorize “enforcement action” (S/1994/565). As the killings began, the United Nations did not expand this mandate.

The failure of the United Nations to prevent this humanitarian tragedy directly owes to the lack of political will over the issue. Dallaire’s famous final sentence in the Genocide Fax – “Peux ce que veux. Allons-y,” or “Where there is will, there is a way. Let’s go” (NSA, GWU), represents just what was lacking in the UN Headquarters. A lack of will had descended upon the international body and it resulted in genocide. The major powers of the world could not, or would not, come together to defend some of the world’s most remote people. And this is the core of the United Nation’s problem. It has not yet found itself. Is it an organization dedicated to solving issues between states, or solving issues between people? Is it a humanitarian organization that provides relief, or is it an institution with the capability to intervene and defend others so that relief is not needed? And most importantly, is it the member states that have more power, or the organization itself? Without answering these, the United Nations can never be an effective organization.

To be an organization that is relevant in times of crises, it is necessary for the United Nations to reform its bureaucracy. Currently, all forms of enforcement of policy lie with the UN Security Council. Yet often times, the crises they are concerned with involve one of the five permanent member countries, creating a Catch-22 situation where a solution to a problem will not emerge simply because the problem controls the passage of the solution. Often times, a resolution may pass, but only in an extremely watered down form that essentially amounts to nothing. This paradoxical and ineffective crisis dealing solution is a main reason why so many states still rely upon state-to-state relations, or regional blocs, to deal with their most pressing issues. The United Nations, thus, must decide what kind of organization it is. If it is truly modelled to “maintain international peace and security,” (UN Charter), then it must have the capability to act independently of its members states.

This power of self-determination must be further expanded in the realm of issues of purely humanitarian concern. The United Nations must act decisively in the face of a humanitarian crisis, and not wait for the approval, or disapproval, of its member states. The recent outbreak in Ebola has shown the weakness of the current model. The situation in West Africa spiraled uncontrollably before any significant aid from the United Nations arrived. To achieve its goals of humanitarian support, the UN must have the resources to operate its agenda. This means a major restructuring to where its budget comes from, and who authorizes the actions. It is impossible to act swiftly in a crisis if it means the approval of 193 countries, each with its own concerns and agenda.

Thus, the biggest challenges facing the world and the United Nations come from within. Political passivity and paralysis presents the greatest threat the world can face.

We look forward to having Zhewei and Constance at the MUN Institute this summer as well as our runners- up! Our programs are getting close to full so sign up today if you are interested in attending the MUN Institute and learning how the United Nations can help solve some of the worlds greatest challenges!