HAVING A BUNCH OF COUNTRIES IN A CONCENTRATED SPACE LEADS TO CONFLICT.
For the past millennia Europe has been the center stage of the world. After all, being home to half of the world's developed nations, and the Roman Catholic Order is a pretty big deal. But, alas, having a lot of developed nations so close together, and so close to the middle east creates competition and conflict; conflict that can easily, and has in the past, erupt into ARMED conflict and violence amongst nations.
But tHAT'S WHY WE HAVE THE U.N.
The U.N. (United Nations) and it's operations, formation, and history are apparently going to be a big thing this semester. To acclimate students to the idea of the U.N.; and our eventual involvement in a classroom model U.N., we were divided up, assigned countries, and thrust straight away into quite the predicament.
ZOMBIES.
How would the U.N. respond to a zombie outbreak? What sort of things does each country bring to council? How can these things be most valuable in the situation of a zombie outbreak? And, most importantly, how do countries interact with, and work with one another to reach a conclusion that promotes peace, and sees to the needs of all people? These were questions I sought to answer throughout the duration of the day.
Everyone split into partnerships and were then randomly assigned a country to "roleplay" as. My partner Mark and I happened upon the United Kingdom. (Our teacher, Matt is British!) In addition to being given countries, we were also given placards representing the given country, and a sheet detailing the countries perceived role in the U.N.'s council. The U.K. has always served as an intermediary of sorts, acting as a middleman for relationships between rival nations. (China and the U.S. for example.) The sheet also detailed the U.K.'s past efforts in combating and controlling communicable diseases such as HIV. The U.K. has been successful in controlling diseases throughout the last decade, spending over one billion dollars in the effort to combat the spread of HIV. The U.K. is also the home base for the European Union's CDC, (The ECDC) despite no longer belonging to the E.U.
Given all this information students gathered around and, pair by pair, introduced their countries and the things that they could offer the zombie control effort in a conversation called a moderated caucus. Three of the most significant voices during the caucus were the U.S., (cause 'Merica yo!) China, (because of their sheer size and scientific authority) and ourselves, the U.K. (because of neutrality, and a desire to ally with China and the U.S.)
After all had been introduced, our moderator and teacher Matt called for a 15ish minute long unmoderated caucus so that countries could converse, form alliances, and begin to write up a resolution plan. Being the U.K., our first country of interest was China. China offered zombie cure research, resources, and manpower in exchange for the use of the U.K.'s Royal Army-Airforce and Navy. The plan was to use the U.K.'s speedily efficient military forces as a global early warning zombie outbreak detection system, so that countries could adequately quarantine and kill zombies and such before they reached populated areas, while China worked away at a cure or some other long term solution.
We thought it was a pretty solid plan, after all, China had managed to unite all but the U.S. and Brazil through their plan, offering protection, resources, and new infrastructure in exchange for their vote. We thought that, being the U.K., we should try to unite the U.S. and China as we had in the past. (Total unity is like, the ultimate goal of the U.N. after all.) We reached out to the U.S. and their ally Brazil, offering to include them in our resolution plan, and they agreed. We reported back to China, telling them how we planned to involved the U.S., and they simply refused. The reason being: China doesn't like the US.
Great.
We cut ties to the U.S. and proceeded to demolish them in council, our plan passing 8:2 in the following caucus. (Better to be part of the winning team I guess.)
It's a struggle to bring people together, and it's a struggle to keep people together.
This activity opened my eyes to a certain aspect about the U.N. It's hard to reach a conclusion that sees to the needs of EVERY country in it, because of the sheer size of the U.N., and the rocky relationships between some of it's countries. By allying with China we essentially closed our doors on the U.S. It would take a lot more than a spoken agreement to unite the two countries, especially if China was leading. Reaching a resolution is hard, but reaching a resolution that promotes peace, and is all inclusive is near impossible. But I suppose that it's more important to reach a good enough solution, that includes as many people as possible.
Everyone split into partnerships and were then randomly assigned a country to "roleplay" as. My partner Mark and I happened upon the United Kingdom. (Our teacher, Matt is British!) In addition to being given countries, we were also given placards representing the given country, and a sheet detailing the countries perceived role in the U.N.'s council. The U.K. has always served as an intermediary of sorts, acting as a middleman for relationships between rival nations. (China and the U.S. for example.) The sheet also detailed the U.K.'s past efforts in combating and controlling communicable diseases such as HIV. The U.K. has been successful in controlling diseases throughout the last decade, spending over one billion dollars in the effort to combat the spread of HIV. The U.K. is also the home base for the European Union's CDC, (The ECDC) despite no longer belonging to the E.U.
Given all this information students gathered around and, pair by pair, introduced their countries and the things that they could offer the zombie control effort in a conversation called a moderated caucus. Three of the most significant voices during the caucus were the U.S., (cause 'Merica yo!) China, (because of their sheer size and scientific authority) and ourselves, the U.K. (because of neutrality, and a desire to ally with China and the U.S.)
After all had been introduced, our moderator and teacher Matt called for a 15ish minute long unmoderated caucus so that countries could converse, form alliances, and begin to write up a resolution plan. Being the U.K., our first country of interest was China. China offered zombie cure research, resources, and manpower in exchange for the use of the U.K.'s Royal Army-Airforce and Navy. The plan was to use the U.K.'s speedily efficient military forces as a global early warning zombie outbreak detection system, so that countries could adequately quarantine and kill zombies and such before they reached populated areas, while China worked away at a cure or some other long term solution.
We thought it was a pretty solid plan, after all, China had managed to unite all but the U.S. and Brazil through their plan, offering protection, resources, and new infrastructure in exchange for their vote. We thought that, being the U.K., we should try to unite the U.S. and China as we had in the past. (Total unity is like, the ultimate goal of the U.N. after all.) We reached out to the U.S. and their ally Brazil, offering to include them in our resolution plan, and they agreed. We reported back to China, telling them how we planned to involved the U.S., and they simply refused. The reason being: China doesn't like the US.
Great.
We cut ties to the U.S. and proceeded to demolish them in council, our plan passing 8:2 in the following caucus. (Better to be part of the winning team I guess.)
It's a struggle to bring people together, and it's a struggle to keep people together.
This activity opened my eyes to a certain aspect about the U.N. It's hard to reach a conclusion that sees to the needs of EVERY country in it, because of the sheer size of the U.N., and the rocky relationships between some of it's countries. By allying with China we essentially closed our doors on the U.S. It would take a lot more than a spoken agreement to unite the two countries, especially if China was leading. Reaching a resolution is hard, but reaching a resolution that promotes peace, and is all inclusive is near impossible. But I suppose that it's more important to reach a good enough solution, that includes as many people as possible.