Committee Topics

In the wake of threats to the internet sovereignty of the European Union and a series of attacks by external actors on the nations of the EU and their internet infrastructure, the International Telecommunications Union seeks to provide a long-term solution to this specific instance of cyber warfare. Delegates will be able to engage with technological and telecommunications policy at large, as well as focusing on the minutiae when it comes to the specific threats facing the European Union; the solutions generated by the committee will be specific in their motives, but universally-applicable.

In this committee, delegates will be challenged to consider the unique challenges posed to the global community by the spread of drug-resistant diseases and ailments, mainly Tuberculosis, the most deadly disease in most developing nations and regions. Delegates could be presented with two avenues for debate: first, there is the issue of standardizing laws regarding intellectual property and the rights involved in producing drugs around the world, which may be a stumbling block towards the equitable disbursement of desperately needed pharmaceuticals all over the world, but may also be considered a necessary protection to those innovators who produce these pharmaceuticals. Simultaneously, delegates may also engage with the ground-level realities of distributing and administering life-saving medical assistance to people around the world, particularly in developing nations; transportation and medical infrastructure is not equitably distributed around the world, and may present a bottleneck in situations where the medical science required to provide solutions is present, but the ability to deliver that help to the patient is not. Regardless of the avenue for debate that delegates pick, students in this committee will be rewarded with a realistic and pressing discussion on the realities of modern global medicine, and may contribute to finding a better future for it.

Though foreign aid had once been lauded as the savior of under-developed nations and what was termed the “third world,” decades of unsustainable development exacerbated by the various forms of foreign aid ranging from bilateral and multilateral direct aid to grants and loans from international institutions to assistance provided by nongovernmental organizations have worked to reverse this belief. Initially rising to popularity in the aftermath of World War II through the United States’ Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, foreign aid quickly became a popular system of managing international relations that continues to be strongly favored today. Despite this, the concrete as opposed to projected outcomes of aid have not always been as desired. Rather, foreign aid, in its current forms, has proven to be quite unsustainable, and, at times, downright destructive, proving the need for a re-evaluation of the aid system. As such, within the capacity of the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee delegates will be tasked with the exploration of the current systems of foreign aid as related to direct aid, that provided by international institutions, and that of non-governmental organizations to consequently determine the role the system plays in promoting what some describe as unsustainable development. Given this understanding, delegates will then be tasked with the creation of solutions to reform the foreign aid system in all of its forms to create a system that instead promotes sustainable development in conjunction with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Topic Summary: Most natural resources are facing decreasing availability and increasing demand. This committee will seek to examine the weaponization of natural resources, or the use of natural resources to influence the conflict and cooperation between states, in order to establish norms for the resolution of natural resource-based conflicts. The increase in conflicts fueled by natural resources indicates that a new geopolitical landscape is upon us, one in which state actors are more inclined to use, or threaten to use, direct force to gain control over valuable resources. The use of natural resources as tools of foreign policy blurs legal and political lines, and existing international legislation surrounding the conduct of warfare largely fails to take this new reality into account. Resource scarcity is not a new problem, but the severity of natural resource weaponization is uniquely modern. Scarcity is exacerbated by current environmental degradation, climate change, and population growth. International legislation regarding the appropriate uses of resources is not only outdated and no longer fit for today’s geopolitical landscape, but is far from comprehensive or sufficiently explicit. The activities of insurgent groups, multinational corporations, and other non-state actors fall beyond existing resource weaponization regulatory frameworks. For all of these reasons, delegates will be asked to identify the international system’s failures in dealing with cases of natural resource weaponization, and to fill in those gaps with new, thoughtful, resource-based resolution strategies.

This committee will address the ongoing challenges of governance, natural resource management, and sustainable development in Western Sahara. As the territory remains disputed, questions surrounding the rights of the Sahrawi people, exploitation of natural resources, and the role of the administering powers persist. Delegates will debate how international oversight, UN mandates, and local leadership can work together to ensure economic development without undermining the principle of self determination. Key issues include equitable resource sharing, environmental protection, infrastructure development, and political representation. The topic allows for discussion between administering states, neighboring countries, and the international community on pathways to sustainable governance. SPECPOL provides the ideal forum to explore solutions that balance sovereignty, human rights, and long term development, encouraging delegates to craft policies that support both political stability and social and economic growth for the territory.

As a region with deep-rooted cultural and religious traditions, Asia provides a compelling case study for how faith, law, and gender intersect. Questions about unequal personal laws, marriage and inheritance rights, family-planning autonomy, and the rights of women in minority religious communities arise as states balance respecting cultural and religious freedom with promoting equality. This committee will provide context for these traditions, outline existing legislation and programs currently in place, and challenge delegates to explore what can be done to further resolve these issues while navigating the tension between cultural preservation and universal human rights.

This topic examines the economic and social consequences of aging populations, including labor shortages, productivity pressures, pension sustainability, and the growing demand for care work. Delegates will explore policy responses such as extending working lives, increasing female labor participation, managed migration, and the role of automation and technological change. By comparing experiences across regions at different stages of demographic transition, this committee will encourage nuanced debate on how states can adapt labor markets to demographic realities while maintaining economic stability and social cohesion.

Delegates in this committee will determine how to handle constitutional abuses and challenges for independence by states/provinces. Specifically, this committee will use a case study format, studying the province of Quebec in Canada and the current policies and practices in place which are part of that province’s effort to create a more independent state within the nation. More specifically, delegates will engage with aspects of independence movements that are advanced through local legislation and referendum, as we see in Quebec. Delegates will engage in their own policy creation and debate to determine whether the people’s will in the state should be respected, or if the unity and authority of the overarching federal government should be respected. Should the global community respect when a state, province, or oblast tries to grant itself independence? Or should it side with the countries who are already members of the UN?

Delegates would address international economic policy between the nations of East Asia and the Pacific, specifically considering international commerce regulations binding members of various economic cooperation groups in the region (ASEAN, etc.). Delegates would pay considerable attention to the potential of non-tariff barriers between trading partners to incentivize free commerce in East Asia, including import and export exchange with China. Considering the geographic location of the conference, delegates are presumed to have background knowledge on the area and be more engaged with a topic that they are both more familiar with and more personally impacted by.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is committed to regional stability and economic growth among its member states. However, the military coup in Myanmar and the ensuing conflict have exposed underlying motivations among ASEAN member states, raised humanitarian crises such as cross-border refugee flows, and undermined ASEAN’s credibility as a regional organization. Delegates must confront how to balance the foundational ASEAN principle of non-interference against the urgent humanitarian crisis, especially as the conflict is disrupting regional trade and human trafficking networks are proliferating. Finally, ASEAN states must analyze the interests of external actors like China, India, the US, and the UN, and how they complicate the responses of member states.

It is the year 2100. Global sea levels have risen by over two meters, reshaping coastlines and submerging significant portions of the world’s most vulnerable states. Many entire island nations, such as the Maldives and Kiribati, have lost their habitable land. Other regions around Bangladesh, the Netherlands, and Vietnam face catastrophic displacement.

As populations are displaced by the tens of millions, governments-in-exile operate without physical territory, which confronts the international system with an unprecedented crisis. At the same time, maritime boundaries are now being destabilized, introducing new accessible Arctic routes that alter trade patterns. Delegates must grapple with questions of legal recognition, climate refugee protections, maritime jurisdiction, and the future of trade. This committee must decide whether to preserve the existing global order or construct an entirely new one for a world defined by rising seas.

PLEASE NOTE: This committee is not run as a traditional MUN committee.

The committee will reproduce real business and trade scenarios, where delegates will play the roles of manufacturing industry, import and export trade industry, simulated government representatives and international news media in the U.S.-China business environment. They will engage in in-depth exercises centered around international trade negotiations and policymaking. The second iteration of this committee will provide an immersive experience for delegates eager to explore global business and trade, as they face the complexities of an ever-changing international business environment and develop innovative solutions to reshape the economic landscape through strategic negotiation and business model innovation.

Please note that for the IBCC committee only, no position papers are required.

In this committee, delegates will be tasked with the administration of the World Health Organization in the midst of a global pandemic. The committee will be based on a fictional pandemic set in the near future, which delegates will be responsible for responding to in the standard Specialized Agencies format with directives. Unlike a traditional crisis committee, this committee will not feature any backroom aspects, i.e. crisis notes. Crisis breaks will be entirely based upon the content of the directives that delegates pass in the committee.

In 1900, the Qing Dynasty faces one of the biggest crises in its history. Foreign powers push deeper into China, local resistance groups are rising up, and the imperial court is caught between reform and tradition. In this committee, delegates will step into the shoes of imperial officials, reformers, and foreign envoys to decide how the Qing should respond to growing unrest and foreign pressure. This topic builds on what many students already know about the late Qing while giving them a creative way to explore it. Although crisis committees are usually for experienced delegates, this scenario offers an accessible challenge for our large group of first-time MUN participants. With our primary conference demographic being Chinese high schoolers, this topic invites delegates to imagine an alternate history of their own country—one they may know in outline but haven’t fully explored. Delegates will engage creatively with key themes like modernization, nationalism, economic reform, and resistance to imperialism.