What is Model UN?

Last Updated: Aug 23, 2009

Model United Nations provides students the opportunity to learn about and discuss today’s most relevant issues of international diplomacy through participation in an academic simulation of the United Nations General Assembly and other multilateral UN bodies and International Organizations. Through a process of preconference research and in-conference debate, caucusing, and resolution-writing, students work to fashion global solutions to these questions, while simultaneously articulating and defending the opinions of the real UN ambassadors and delegates they represent.

Model UN allows participants to expand both their understanding and abilities. Pre-conference research on a country's domestic and foreign policies adds to a partipant’s knowledge and appreciation of world affairs. By converting this research into resolutions and material for discussion in committee, students hone their analytical abilities, while the debate and lobbying processes afford students the opportunity to practice their public speaking and conflict resolution skills. MUN participants come away from a conference with a more acute understanding of the world we live in and with a greater commitment to finding solutions for its problems.