MODEL UNITED NATIONS

 

Department of Government

 

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

 

 

Professor Jacques Fomerand                                                         Spring 2004

Course Number 297                                                                             Office Hours:

917-699-2680                                                                                     Mon 12-1:00pm

[email protected]                                                                             Wed 12-:1:00pm

 

This course is designed to prepare students to participate as delegates in the Spring 2004 national Model United Nations to be held at the Hilton Hotel, New York from 6 to 10 April 2004. The course is designed around the timetable of the Model UN and its requirements, and as such, begins earlier in the semester but runs until the end of the semester.

 

Preparations for the UN Model focus on three areas:

 

1. Basic Model UN Participation/diplomatic Skills

 

            *Speech preparation and delivery

            * Research skills

            * Resolution writing

            * Caucusing and debating

            * Parliamentary procedure

            *Voting

            *General strategy

 

2. Country representation

 

            *Geography and resources

            *Population and culture

            *History

*Country’s political system and leadership

            *Essential national interests and key issues of interest

            *Foreign policy

            *Alliances and memberships in international organizations

           

3. Committee assignments

 

This year, Niger has been assigned to the John Jay team. The team will sit in the following committees:

General Assembly Plenary 1. International migration and development; 2. Establishment of nuclear free zones; 3. Financing for development.

General Assembly Third Committee:   1. Implications of the struggle against terrorism on human rights; 2. follow up to the Durban Declaration and programme of action;3. Social and humanitarian situation in post war Iraq;

Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People:  1.Securing a healthy living environment; 2 social and economic concerns in the settlements; 3. evaluation and implementation of the Road Map to Peace.

World Intellectual Property Organization:  1.Patent protection and access to pharmaceuticals; 2. contemporary challenges of international  intellectual property laws and practices; 3. traditional knowledge and folklore protection.

International Atomic Energy Agency  1. IAEA and North Korea: steps toward a more stable future; 2. ensuring compliance with IAEA standards; 3. combating radiological terrorism through nuclear material security.

International Criminal Police Organization  1.protection of priceless works of art, 2. dismantling of international terrorist networks; 3.  combating illicit transactions and crimes in information technology.

Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:  1. changing gender roles in the future of Islam; 2.  the dialogical imperative: communication across cultures and civilizations 3. developing human capital in the Islamic world.

African Union  1.Creation and implementation of an African peacekeeping force; 2. strengthening African economies through good governance; 3. impact of poverty on environmental security.

 

The agenda for each committee is very distinct and students will be required to become familiar with both the issue area of their committee’s agenda as well as Niger’s interest in that agenda. 

 

Required readings:

 

Information will be received in packets from the UN Model. But all class members are encouraged to purchase the United Nations’ Association latest edition of The Guide to Delegate Preparation and A Global Agenda: Issues Before the General Assembly.  In addition, students are urged to be thoroughly familiar with any major college text on the United Nations. The following is strongly recommended

 

            Lawrence Ziring, Robert Riggs, Jack Plano. The United Nations. International Organization and World Politics. Third edition. Wadsworth, 2000.

 

 

Other useful readings have been listed in appendix to this course outline.

 

 For a good start to inquire about Africa’s international relations, please consult Mark W. DeLancey, William Cyrus Reeed, Rebecca Spyke and Peter Stern. Africa’s International Relations. An Annotated Bibliography. Second edition. Boulder Colo.: Westview, 1997.

 

 

 

Evaluation:  

 

A significant portion of the final grade will be determined by your participation in the actual Model UN. There are also several other components of your grade as well.

 

            Attendance and participation:       20%

            Participation at UN Model:            20%

            Position papers (2):                         40%

            Oral presentations:                         10%

            Country position points and           10%

            Draft resolution

 

Position papers: Students are expected to submit two position papers, one concerning the structure of the United Nations (due February 12), the other on the position of our assigned country in your chosen committee (due 4 March). The position papers are not to exceed 2 pages. The first should focus on the history, evolution and current status of your committee in the UN system. The second should lay out the official position of our assigned country’s government with regard to the terms on the agenda in your committee.

 

Six points assignment: After sufficient research, each student delegate will prepare a list of six main points he/she would want to make regarding his/her country’s position vis-a- vis your committee. In addition, the student will generate a list of likely/past/possible allies who would share a similar list of six points.  And be prepared to defend to the team as a whole the rationale for choice of particular allies. For the following class period, the student will be expected to come up with six counterpoints to be raised by likely opponents,  identify the likely opponents and the rationale for their opposition, and present it to the class. In class then, peers will come up with strategic responses to those counterpoints. Draft resolutions will be the final product.

 

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

 

January 15 and 22:

 

Country/ Committee assignments/Topics identified

Lecture on the United Nations, its organization and mandate

 

January 29:

 

Briefings by officials of the Permanent Mission of Niger to the United Nations and the United Nations

 

 

 

 

 

February 5:

 

Briefing on comparative politics of the West African region and internal and external determinants of Niger’s foreign policy. Professor Lennie Markovitz (TBC) and/or Africa Networks.

 

February 12:

 

First position paper due on UN structure and organization

Peer review, discussion and critique

Comparative politics of our region

 

February 19 and 26

 

Procedures, rules and resolutions

Drafting of resolutions using proper language relevant to your assignments

Peer evaluation and critique

 

March 4:

 

Second position paper due on country’s position of committee agenda

Oral presentation of the position paper

Peer review and critique of position paper

 

March 11:

 

First six points paper due, resent, evaluated

Allies identified

 

March 18:

 

Second six counter points identified

Responses drafted

 

March 26:

 

Simulation exercise

 

April 1:

 

Last meeting before the Model UN

Final questions, preparations, presentations

Planning strategy

 

 

 

USEFUL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

 

 Major reference works,  collections, archives

 

Annual Report of the Secretary General on the Work of the Organization

Atherton, Alexine L. International Organizations. A Guide to information Sources. Book Tower, Detroit, Michigan, 1976

Index to the Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council

Index to the Proceedings of the General Assembly

Index to the Proceedings of the Security Council

Index to the resolutions of the Security Council

International Instruments of the United Nations: A Compilation of Agreements, Charters, Declarations,.

International Instruments related to the recention and Suppression of International Terrorism Principles, Proclamations, Protocols, and Treaties Adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations

Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council

Repertory of Practice of United Nations Organs.

United Nations Juridical Yearbook

Yearbook of the United Nations

Yearbook of the United Nations, 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: The United Nations, 1997.

Yearbook of the United Nations

Yearbook of the International Law Commission

Yearbook of the International Court of Justice

International Labour Organization Yearbook

Yearbook on Human Rights

 

Scholarly Periodicals

 

American Journal of International Law

Columbia Journal of Transnational  Law

Conflict Management and Peace Science (CMPS)

Current History

European Journal of International Relations(EJIR)

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Policy
Global Governance

Human Rights Quarterly

India Quarterly (New Delhi)

Indian Journal of International Law (New Delhi)

International Affairs (London)

International Conciliation (1907-72)

International Journal(IJ) Canada
International Journal (Toronto)
International Organization

International Peacekeeping

International Review of the Red Cross

International Security (IS) Harvard University

International Social Science Journal

International Peacekeeping (London)

International Relations (London)

International Social Science Journal

Journal of Conflict Resolution

Journal of International Affairs

Journal of Peace research (Oslo)

Journal of World-Systems Research(JWSR)
Millennium (Colorado)

Natural Resources Forum

Orbis: A Quarterly of World Affairs

Pakistan Horizon (Karachi)

Population and Development Review

Population Bulletin of the United Nations

Review of International Political Economy (RIPE)( UK)
Review of International Studies (RIS)

Security Studies

The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance

Third World Quarterly

World Development

World Politics

Zeitschrift fuerIinternationale Beziehungen (Germany)

 

 

Origins, Establishment and Evolution of the UN System

 

Archer, Clive. International Organization, 3^rd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.

 

Claude, Inis, Jr.. Swords into Plowshares. The Problems and Progress of International Organizations, 4^th ed. New York: Random House, 1971.

 

Diehl, Paul F. (ed.). The Politics of Global Governance: International Organizations in an Interdependent World. Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner, 1992.

 

Franck, Thomas M.  Nation Against Nation: What Happened to the UN Dream and What the US Can Do About It.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.

 

Glassner, Martin Ira (ed). The United Nations at Work. West Port, Conn.: Praeger, 1998.

 

Goodrich, Leland, Edward Hambro, and Anne Patricia Simon. Charter of the United Nations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.

 

Goodrich, Leland and Edvard Hambro. Charter of the United Nations: Commentary and Documents. Boston: World Peace Foundation, 1949.

 

Gordenker, Leon. Thinking About the United Nations System. Hanover, N.H.: Academic Council on the United Nations, 1990.

 

Hilderbrand, Robert C. Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security. Chapel Hill: University of Carolina Press, 1997.

 

Hoopes, Townsend and Douglas Brinkley. FDR and the Creation of the UN. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997.

 

Luard, Evan.  A History of the United Nations: The Years of Western Domination. London: Macmillan, 1982.

 

May, Ernest R. and Angeliki E. Laiou (eds.).  The Dumbarton Oaks Conversations and the United Nations 1944-1994. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Distributed by Harvard University Press, 1998.

 

Meisler, Stanley. United Nations: The First Fifty Years. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.

Mingst, Karen A, M. P. Karns, and G. A. Lopez (eds). United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era. Boulder Colo.: Westview Press, 1999.

 

Righter, Rosemary. Utopia Lost – The United Nations and World Order. New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1995.

 

Roberts, Adam and Benedict Kingsbury (eds.). United Nations, Divided World. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

 

Russell, Ruth (assisted by Jeanette E. Muther).  A History of the United Nations Charter.  Washington, DC.: Brookings Institution, 1958.

 

Ryan, Stephen. The United Nations and International Politics, (Studies in Contemporary History). New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.

 

Schlesinger, Stephen. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Pr5ess, 2003.

 

Taylor, Paul and A.J.R. Groom (eds).  The United Nations at the Millennium: the Principle Organs. London; New York: Continuum, 2000.

 

Weiss, Thomas G., D. P. Forsythe, and R. A Coate. United Nations: Changing World Politics. 3^rd Ed.  Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000.
 

 

The Changing International Setting: The Cold War, Decolonization, the Post Cold War, Globalization

Claude, Inis, The Changing United Nations. New York: Random House, 1968.

 

Crabb, C.V.D. The Elephants and the Grass: A Study of Non-Alignment. New York: Praeger, 1965.

 

Emerson, Rupert. From Empire to Nation.  Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1960.

 

Gurr, Ted Robert. Minorities at Risk: A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts. Washington D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 1993.

 

Hirst, Paul; Globalization in Question:  the International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance.  Cambridge, Mass.: Polity Press, 1999.

 

Hoogvelt, Ankie. Globalization and the Postcolonial World: The New Political Economy of Development. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

 

Hutchinson, John and Anthony D. Smith (eds.). Ethnicity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

 

__________. Nationalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. 

 

Jackson, Robert H.. Quasi-states: Sovereignty, International Relations and the Third World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

 

Jacobson, Harold K. Networks of Interdependence: International Organizations and the Global Political System. 2^nd edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

 

Martin, L. W. (ed.). Neutralism and Nonalignment: The New States in the World. New York: Praeger, 1962.

 

Mearsheimer, John J. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.

 

Morgenthau, Hans J. (Revised by Kenneth W. Thompson) Politics Among Nations. The Struggle for power and peace. Sixth edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1985. 

 

Schaeffer, Robert K. Understanding Globalization: The Social Consequences of Political, Economic and Environmental Change. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.

 

Seligson, Mitchell A. and John T. Passe-Smith. Development and Underdevelopment: The Political Economy of Global Inequality. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998.

 

Sellers, Mortimer (ed.).  The New World Order: Sovereignty, Human Rights, and the Self-Determination of Peoples. Oxford; Washington D.C.: Berg, 1996.

 

Stiglitz, Joseph E.. Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002.

 

Willetts, Peter. The Non-Aligned Movement: The Origins of the Third World Alliance. London: Pinter, 1978.

 

The views from the states

 

 

Alger, Chadwick F., Gene Lyons, and John Trent. The United Nations System: The Policies of Member States. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1995.

 

Chakraborty, Bimal. The United Nations and the Third World: Shifting Paradigms. New Dehli: Tata McGraw-Hill, 1977.

 

Dulles, John Foster.  “The General Assembly.”  Foreign Affairs (October 1945): 165-175. 

 

Ferguson, Tyrone. The Third World and Decision-Making in the International Monetary Fund: The Quest for Full and Effective Participation. London: Pinter Publishers, 1988.

 

Gati, Tobi Trister (ed). The US, the UN and the Management of Global Change, New York: New York University Press, 1983.

 

Grant, Cedric, “Equity in International Relations: A Third World Perspective,” International Affairs

(Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 71.3, Ethics, the Environment and the Changing International Order. (July 1995): 567-587.

 

Gregg, Robert W.  About Face? The United States and the United Nations. Boulder, Colo.:  Lynne Riener, 1993.

 

Hasan, Sarwar. Pakistan and the United Nations. New York: Manhattan Publishing Company, 1960.

 

Jonah, James O.C.  Differing State Perspectives on the United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era.  John W. Holmes Memorial Lecture. Reports and Papers, 1993, No. 4. Providence, R.I.: Academic Council on the United Nations System, 1993.

 

Karefa-Smart, John. “Africa and the United Nations.” International Organization, 19.3 The United Nations: Accomplishments and Prospects. (1965): 764-773.

 

Karns, Margaret P. and Karen A. Mingst (eds.). The United States and Multilateral Institutions: Patterns of Changing Instrumentality and Influence. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

 

Kaufman, Natalie Hevener. Human Rights Treaties and the Senate: A History of Opposition. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Pr4ess, 1990.

 

Kay, David. The New Nations in the United Nations 1960-1967. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

 

Krause, Keith, and W. A.Knight. State, Society, and the UN System. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1995.

 

Luck, Edward.  Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization, 1919-1999.  Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1999.

 

Morrell, James B. The Law of the Sea: An Historical Analysis of the 1982 Treaty and Its Rejection by the United States. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co., 1991.

 

Riggs, Robert E. Politics in the United Nations. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1958. Reprinted by Greenwood Press, 1984.

 

Sauvant, Karl P.  The Group of 77: Evolution, Structure, Organization. New York: Oceana Publications, 1981.

 

Shah, Manubhai. Developing Countries and UNCTAD.  Bombay: Vora, 1968.

 

United Nations Institute for Training and Research. A New International Economic Order: Selected Documents 1945-1973. New York: UNITAR, 1976  2 vols.

 

Pew Center for the People & the Press. Views of a Changing World. Washington: The Pew Center for the People & the Press, 2003. 

 

Wood, Bryce and Minerva Morales M. “Latin America and the United Nations.” International Organization, 19.3. The United Nations: Accomplishments and Prospects. (Summer 1965): 714-727.

 

Zammit-Cutajar, Michael (ed.). UNCTAD and the North-South Dialogue: The First Twenty-Five Years. London: Pergamon, 1985.

 

 

 

The Legal, institutional and financial framework

 

 

Bailey, Sidney D., and S. Daws.  The Procedure of the UN Security Council. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

 

Haviland, Henry Field.  The Political Role of the General Assembly.  New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1951.

 

Haas, Peter M., Robert O. Keohane and Marc A. Levy (eds.). Institutions for the Earth: Sources of Effective International Environmental Institutions. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1993.

 

Hill, Martin. The United Nations System: Coordinating Its Economic and Social Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

 

Malone, David. “Eyes on the Prize: The Quest for Nonpermanent Seats on the UN Security Council.”  Global Governance 6.1 (2000)

 

Malone, David.  Decision-Making in the UN Security Council: The Case of Haiti, 1990-1997. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.

 

Mills, Susan R.  The Financing of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Occasional Paper No. 3. New York: International Peace Academy, 1989.

 

Russett, Bruce (ed).  The Once and Future Security Council. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

 

Singer, David.  Financing International Organization: The United Nations Budget Process. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1961.

 

Stoessinger, John G., and Associates. Financing the United Nations System. Washington, D.C..: Brookings Institution, 1964.

 

Taylor, Paul and A.J. R. Groom (eds.).  The United Nations at the Millennium. Principal Organs. London and New York: Continuum, 2000.

 

Wightman, David. Toward Economic Cooperation in Asia: The United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific.  New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1963.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decision-making

 

 

Alker, Hayward R., and B. M. Russett. World Politics in the General Assembly. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965.

 

Ameri, Houshang. Politics and Process in the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations. Aldershot, Eng.: Gower Publishing, 1982.

 

Bailey, Sidney D. Voting in the Security Council. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.

 

Bailey, Sidney D. and S. Daws. The Procedure of the UN Security Council. 3^rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

 

Chasek. Pamela. Earth Negotiations. Analyzing Thirty Years of Environmental Diplomacy. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2001. 

 

Childers, Erskine (ed.). Challenges to the United Nations: Building a Safer World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

 

Cox, Robert W., and H. K. Jacobson (eds.). The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-Making in International Organization. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973.

 

Cooper, Andrew F., J. English, and R. Thakur (eds.). Enhancing Global Governance; Towards a New Diplomacy? Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2002.

 

Jacobson, Harold K.  Networks of Interdependence. 2d ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

 

Karns, Margaret P. “Ad Hoc Multilateral Diplomacy: the United States, the Contact Group, and Namibia, “ International Organization 41.1 (1987).

 

Kaufman, Johan. Conference Diplomacy: An Introductory Analysis. 2^nd rev. ed. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988.

 

_____________.  United Nations Decision-Making. Rockville, Md: Sijthoff and Noordthoff, 1980.

 

Lall, Arthur S. Multilateral Negotiation and Mediation. New York: Pergamon Press, 1985.

 

McHenry, Donald. “The Contact Group and Initial Negotiations (1978-1981)” in Herbert Weill and Matthew Braham. The Namibian Peace Process: Implications and Lessons for the Future. Freiburg: Arnold Bergstrasser Institut, 1994.

 

Merrills, J.G. International Dispute Settlement. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

 

Prantl, Jochen and Jean Krasno. Informal Ad Hoc Groupings of States and the Workings of the United Nations. Academic Council on the United Nations System. International Relations Studies and the United Nations Occasional  Papers No. 3, 2002.

 

Rothstein, Robert L. Global Dialogue: UNCTAD and the Quest for a New International Economic Order.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979.

 

Tolba, Mostafa K., with Iwona Rummel-Bulska. Global Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating Environmental Agreements with the World, 1973-1992. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998.

 

Weiss, Thomas G. Multilateral Development Diplomacy in UNCTAD: The Lessons of Group Negotiations, 1964-84. London: Macmillan, 1986.

 

Williams, Marc. Third World Cooperation: The Group of 77 in UNCTAD. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.