The Five College Model United Nations conference (FCMUN) is jointly hosted by Mount Holyoke College, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Smith College, Amherst College, and Hampshire College, and is led by Secretary-General Margaret Fitzgerald from Mount Holyoke College. It’s a smaller college conference but one that the Best Delegate team thought was interesting to showcase. We have a photoblog of the conference and of the delegates in action from almost every committee here — check out it!
Opening Ceremonies featured keynote speaker Catlin Powers, Science Advisor at One Earth Designs. Best Delegate‘s Kevin Felix Chan actually met Catlin on the bus ride to Mt. Holyoke and it was interesting to hear about her work incubating local innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries. Caitlin spoke about the emerging markets — the world that our leaders will be living and negotiating in — and the importance of being a leader today.
Afterward, the committees kicked off with some interesting debates.
The European External Action Service tested the effectiveness of the European Union’s security and defense abilities in the post-Treaty of Lisbon arrangement. They faced a variety of crises starting out with Somali pirates.
The Indian cabinet has a familiar topic to discuss: tensions with Pakistan.
The Historical Security Council (1990s) debated about UN actions against Iraq after Iraq had invaded Kuwait. On a personal note, I chaired this same committee and topic at UCLA’s high school conference several years ago, so it will be interesting to see if history will be re-written here.
The keynote speaker spoke about the importance of addressing the Millennium Development Goals, and FCMUN simulated a committee that allowed delegates to do just that.
Here are several other committees in action: