Picture this: you’re at your first ever MUN conference. Your mom drops you off at the conference, which is probably held at a local high school. You have no idea what you’re doing or what to expect. You nervously clutch your research binder as you walk in: you’re representing a probably small, probably not-very-relevant country in a General Assembly committee. This is how most delegates begin their MUN career.

 

Fast forward 2-4 years: your first conference seems a distant memory. Since you began in a GA committee, that’s basically where you’ve stayed: maybe you only attend local conferences that don’t offer Specialized Agencies. Maybe your school isn’t competitive enough to earn those crisis seats in whatever conferences it attends, or: maybe you’re scared to try something new out of fear that you won’t be as successful. Well, I’m here to tell you that my MUN career didn’t skyrocket until I took the leap of faith and tried out a crisis committee for the first time. Here’s three reasons why you should do the same:

 

1. It’s more fast paced. If you’re like any other MUN delegate, regardless of experience level, than you know what it’s like to sit in a GA committee on hour 4 of committee and be completely bored out of your mind. Committee has been stuck in a seemingly never ending thread of moderated caucus after moderated caucus, and each delegate seems to be repeating the same tired ideas speech after speech. You’re hungry, tired, and committee is accomplishing nothing. I can assure you that such a scenario is, frankly, impossible in any crisis committee. With fresh crisis updates banging on the committee door every 15-20 minutes or so, delegates are forced to rapidly move from topic to topic, passing directive after directive. The goal of crisis is to simulate the (obviously accelerated) timeline of a real-life geopolitical crisis: by nature, the committee doesn’t have the option to stall, repeating the same ideas over and over. Speeches are quick, directives are short, and committee will keep chugging along (at least, until it’s interrupted by the next banging on the door when the crisis staff announces that the Secretary of Finance has been found dead in his hotel room!) In short, you’ll never be bored.

 

2. Learn more about military history. Not all, but many crisis committees are centered around military conflicts or wars. These are particularly common topics for joint crisis committees (JCCs). These topics provide delegates with a unique opportunity to learn about military history in practice, which is something that GA committees simply can’t offer in the same way. If you choose to participate in crisis, chances are that at some point you’ll represent a military official. Whether or not military history intrigues you, it provides a fresh way to approach geopolitics and, for many, a more tangible or hands-on aspect of a political debate.

 

 

3. Apply your geopolitical understanding in a more realistic scenario. Have you ever been frustrated by a GA resolution that was wholly unrealistic or lacking in specificity? Did a delegate win an award in your committee simply because they talked the most, even though they clearly hadn’t done the necessary research and had no idea what they were talking about?  Or maybe, something about the theoretical, hypothetical nature of MUN bothers you? If so, crisis could be a great way to make MUN more attractive, fair, and ethically sound. Crisis committees are, inarguably, more realistic than GA committees because they incorporate the individual dealings, political goals, and corruption of each participating nation/individual in committee. Delegates who win awards in crisis committees are not simply the delegates who are the loudest spoken or the most extraverted: in fact, it’s often the slightly quieter delegates who end up having the most elaborate crisis schemes and take home the gavels. Doing your research will pay off immensely in crisis committees, and it will give you a more accurate glimpse into the career field of international relations.

 

While they might seem intimidating, crisis committees strike the perfect balance of intensity and light heartedness, which makes these committees super enjoyable. I recommend that you give them a try–who knows? You might even end up a die-hard crisis committee addict like me.