IRAQ: A lesson about IR
Hello boys and girls. As a former teacher, I would occasionally witness a news story so horrific and perplexing that I would cancel the day’s lesson plans, and instead, have a conversation about the news. Today is such a day that I have to stop working and take to the blog. As an author of MUN-E and a former advisor of a student club dedicated to teaching political compromise, A.K.A. DIPLOMACY, under the auspice of Model UN, the news of the day beseeches me to discuss the quagmire in Iraq. As a United States citizen, I must also speak up to denounce the continuing rhythm of our foreign intervention that causes so much destruction. Essentially, if you are practicing Model UN and hoping to pursue a career within the International Relations umbrella, the recent series of events are a beautiful lesson of what NOT to do with your foreign policy. The main article that I will citing in this discussion is found here. It is loaded with facts that you may have never been taught. For example: …it’s quite likely that Iraq’s border were specifically drawn to cut across ethnic boundaries and thereby assure a failed state, because Britain had learned through history that failed states were the easiest to control. This was their preferred MO in India and numerous other colonies, and by 1916 it was a more or less perfected tool of statecraft. I don’t want to jump too far ahead too soon, but I am citing this factual passage to invoke your thoughts about the future of our world and the role of a major world power like any P5 country. In school, especially grades K-12, we learn that wars happen due to evil personalities and corrupt governments who take advantage of people… and that “peacekeepers” like the most “excellent” United States intervene and set these evil leaders straight. I don’t want to discuss the truth of this lesson yet, instead I want to share some of the foreign policy activities of P5 countries interfering in the Middle East in the past year. Assad’s Syria, as an ally of Russia and the sovereign controller of land that is ideal for a network of transcontinental oil and gas pipelines, is no friend of the UK or the United States, aka “The West”. The West, along with Saudi Arabia, begins sending weapons to the “Syrian rebels”, which are actually a faction under the Al Qaeda umbrella, a well-known terrorist organization that has been supported by Saudi Arabia since the 80’s (notice how the mainstream news never tells us that “the US is paying for weapons to be given to the same terrorist organization who claims responsibility for 9/11″… but instead they say that “we’re supporting the Syrian Rebels”). Exactly one year ago, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tells us, “We have stepped up our assistance, but I cannot inventory for you all the elements of that assistance. We have provided and will continue to provide substantial assistance to the Syrian opposition, as well as the Supreme Military Council.” After a false flag chemical attack and under the...
Read MoreMUN-E Cheat Sheet: 2012-2013
We at Model UN Education and The MUNIVERSITY are happy to FINALLY bring you what will become our “annual” international news pre-season summary. Have you ever heard of Fantasy Football or even an All-Star game in professional sports? Well, this is our all-star list of newsworthy world events starting from the near end of your previous school year. We hope to give you a quick overview of the summary of these events, linking each one to a series of news articles. We will undeniably confess that we have our own bias as EVERY organization does. As educators, we seek to give a bird’s eye view of each event on a large timescale. As a lesson, you should NEVER believe what you read in a single article, especially when it comes to anything you read on the INTERNET. The sooner you begin to use your ability to CURATE YOUR RESEARCH, the more embarrassment you will avoid in the future. Some opposing or allied delegates will lose trust in you immediately if you begin quoting a source that is completely wrong, for example, when John Kerry says the USA has a very strict line about chemical weapons, you cannot quote him and assume that we have never sold chemical weapons to middle eastern countries. The mountain of historical evidence is against you. We also do not want you to think that we are historians. We have no intention of giving a complete deconstruction of ANY event. We may actually phrase our bias in such a way that you, as a Model UN delegate, can “spin” your position the way we will undoubtedly spin ours. But you will have to rephrase your research through the perspective of your respective country or the person that you represent in your respective committee. For example, don’t use our arguments about Barack Obama’s failure to work with Congress if you are a representative of the United States. Our review will begin in the summer, post-Putin election. Note that the links we are attaching are from a site that simply aggregated a series of news articles so that you may do your own investigation. We wanted to thank the creators of the website endgame.com but there is no information through which we can thank them. So give them some clicks and do your proper diligence of RESEARCH: Spain Accepts 100 Billion Euro Bailout Deal. (06-08-2012, 40 Records) Financial issues are becoming the hallmark of every political decision in the world. If you are going to have any power as a diplomat, you are going to have to become financially savvy. In the case of the European Union, you need to focus on the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BOE). The Federal Reserve of the USA (the Fed) is a replica of the BOE and the ECB is a modern, overextended replica of the Fed. European countries that rely on tourism much less than Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain (unfavorably called the PIGS), have much more stable economies. Greece’s troubles should be relatively familiar to you, and Italy, Spain, and Portugal are experiencing very similar troubles...
Read MoreSPECIAL MUN TOPIC: The “Emerging” Economies!
This article discusses the growth of Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa. These countries are typically in the “mid-range” of influence within their respective blocs, but the amount of financial influence they yield is only increasing. The regional positions of these economies provide more geopolitical and geomilitary power to their delegates in committee, especially because some of these countries provide resources that the P5 are deeply dependent upon, e.g. Egypt controls the Suez, Turkey is the gateway of most oil pipelines between the Middle East and Europe, Indonesia is currently China’s #1 target for oil and coal, and South Africa controls huge mines of gold, silver, and platinum. Have you used one ore more of these countries to your advantage or can you position yourself in an upcoming ECOSOC committee to use the strategic position of one of these countries to steer debate? Tell us about it and comment...
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