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2020NHSMUN

NHSMUN Research GuideUpdated November 2019

IMUNA Delegate Guides

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About IMUNA

Founded in 1979, IMUNA is an educational non-profit organization devoted to global issues education through simulation of international debate. To achieve this goal, we strive to build up the Model United Nations (MUN) community at all levels by leading premier MUN conferences, connecting students with the world of professional diplomacy, and creating resources that can put the power of MUN in every classroom.

Our flagship program, NHSMUN, is the largest MUN conference for secondary school students in the world. Every year, we welcome more than 5,000 participants from more than 60 countries to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City for four days of lively debate and critical thinking. NHSMUN is run by a diverse, all-volunteer staff of more than 150 university students from the top colleges and universities. Our talented staff have gone on to become prominent diplomats, academics, business leaders, and lawyers who shape global politics today.

IMUNA’s impact is not just limited to NHSMUN. To foster the growth of quality MUN experiences everywhere, we publish the resources that drive NHSMUN’s success online, free of charge. We also partner with organizations in numerous countries, including China, Italy, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates, to build high quality conferences in every region of the world. To support MUN in the classroom, we hold personalized training sessions for students and faculty to help them make the most of their MUN experience. We also partner with various UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide unique opportunities for students to experience first-hand the world of diplomacy and international relations.

What separates IMUNA from other MUN organizations is our belief that exceptional educational quality must be at the core of the MUN experience. Our staff prepares research materials for delegates that push them to develop critical thinking skills about complex global issues. For our faculty partners, we provide resources to expose students to new ways of thinking in clubs and classrooms around the world. At the conference, delegates learn from each other as they work to achieve consensus across diverse points of view. This passion for educational quality has earned IMUNA the reputation of being among the most aca-demically rigorous conferences in the world.

IMUNA’s goal is to shape next generation of globally-minded leaders through global issues education. Through MUN, we are able to prepare students for an increasingly interconnected future that will require cross-cultural understanding. If you are inter-ested in working with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@imuna.org.

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Table of Contents

IMUNA Delegate Guides 1

About IMUNA 2

Crafting a Position Paper 4

Format of a Position Paper 4

Research for MUN Veterans 9

Sample Position Paper 13

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Crafting a Position Paper

A delegate’s experience does not begin when they walk through the committee’s doors; instead, it begins the second they start researching. Dedicating time to research and preparation in the months leading up to the conference will result in a well-rounded, prepared delegate ready to both contribute unique ideas to the committee and defend those ideas against others. Chairs at nearly every conference are trained to notice evidence of strong research and look favorably on it.

Before talking about the position paper itself, its first important to draw a distinction between policy and solutions. Policy is a country’s stance on a topic. It’s their opinion about what exactly the issue even is. The solutions are the concrete, specific steps that a country wants to take to address the issue. Let’s look at an example between Egypt and Ethiopia to see how dramatically policies can differ. In the simplest possible terms, Ethiopia, a country in East Africa, is building a dam on the Blue Nile River, which feeds into the famous Nile River which flows through Egypt. This dam would be used for electricity generation and would require a large reservoir to fill before it became operational. Egypt has strongly protested this dam for years on the grounds that it will threaten their water security. Ethiopia, on the other hand, argues that it will actually help Egypt manage their water resources. The two countries’ policies are clearly opposed: Egypt opposes the dam because of water security, Ethiopia supports it for electricity production. The solutions are how each side wants to carry out their policy. Egyptian leaders have suggested opposing the dam in a variety of ways, including building support among regional leaders to join them and even funding rebel groups in Ethiopia to attack the dam. These solutions support Egypt’s policy of opposing the construction of the dam.

At NHSMUN, like most MUN conferences, delegates compile their research on their country into what is a known as a posi-tion paper, which is often a requirement for delegates to receive awards at the conference. These papers are read carefully by the dais and returned to the delegates with feedback and suggestions to help them during the final stages of their research. More importantly, though, the position paper is also a reference document. Many delegates also bring research binders with them, which we’ll describe in the next section, but the position paper is a chance to highlight the most important facts and policies into one quick reference sheet. The act of writing a position paper forces students to prioritize information and succinctly summarize their policy. Pages and hours of research must be condensed into a few paragraphs. This prioritization of extensive research helps delegates to have a more focused debate, as delegates will be more likely to stay on-policy when they have already chosen the most important elements of that policy.

Format of a Position Paper

Position papers that are submitted to NHSMUN are expected to be divided into three, equally important parts, which we will describe in the subsections below. There are no guidelines for how long each section should be, but the positon paper overall should be no longer than 20 pages (10 pages per topic).

I. Topic Background

Entire books could be written about most MUN topics, but delegates don’t have time to write an entire book. Therefore, this should just highlight just the parts of the topic background that are most important to the assigned country and the solutions you will propose (see the last section). Don’t waste time on superfluous details! The more information you include, the harder it becomes to find any one piece of information, so it’s worthwhile to keep your discussion brief.

One thing that should be noted is that it makes sense for delegates to be biased in their retelling of the history of a topic. Not only is history almost always biased in some way, but countries want to tell stories in a way that reflects well on their policies.

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Therefore, delegates should not feel the need to be completely objective with this section. Focus on the details that prove your ideas right, and downplay the ones that don’t. Be careful not to overdo this—it’s possible to take your bias so far that it becomes more of a comedy than a serious representation of your country. But a moderate amount of bias will more honestly reflect your country in committee.

II. Country Policy

This section focuses on the delegate’s country policy about what needs to be done to address the topic. Again, simplicity is key. Each paper should state the policy in plain terms, and then include some statistics or facts that support the effectiveness of that policy (perhaps from the first section). Supporting evidence is critical because if someone challenges the policy in committee, the evidence will help shut down that opposition voice.

It’s important to note that this section is by far the section that students struggle most with position papers is their coun-try policy. This is because not every country has a clearly laid out policy on every topic around the world. Given the number of issues facing the world, this isn’t surprising, but it doesn’t mean that the country doesn’t have a policy. Let’s consider the dis-pute between China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands. Most students will not be representing either China or Japan, so their countries might not have a stated policy. However, students should always consider their allies, regional balance of power, and precedent. Countries are typically more likely to support their allies first, so if they are allied with a country involved in the dispute, they will support them. Countries also weigh the regional balance of power. Countries that are afraid of China’s grow-ing influence are likely to support Japan’s proposals (and vice versa!). Finally, precedent is also important, as countries are usually reluctant to pursue solutions that might be used against them in the future. Even if the tiny island nation of Vanuatu doesn’t have a stated policy about the Senkaku Islands, these three tools can be used to infer a policy.

III. Proposed Solutions

This section tests each student’s out-of-the-box thinking and creativity, as delegates are encouraged to think of a wide range of ideas that fit their country’s policy. This section should rely heavily on the previous two sections—how does the country’s per-ception of the history of the topic and their policy on the topic shape the kinds of ideas that country would propose in debate? However, proposed solutions need to be realistic. While a solution that costs $100 trillion might work, the world doesn’t have $100 trillion to throw at every problem. The solution should also clearly be a natural extension of the country’s policy. It should clearly answer the question: “why is this solution the one that this country would favor above all others?”

The most common question students ask about developing solutions is why they can’t just side with one country/party/group in a conflict. For example, if the committee is debating about the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, many students may be inclined to give their full-throated support to Ukraine. This, however, does not show much creative thinking nor does it address the real issues of the topic. Many of Ukraine’s powerful neighbors do, in fact, support them! But that support has not yielded a complete and total triumph for Ukraine. Students should think about what the real obstacles to peace are and how they can address them.

IV. Works Cited

Of course, no research paper is complete without a Works Cited. It is always important to cite the sources that you use in your writing to give proper attribution to the people who have worked so hard to provide you with the information you learned. It can also be helpful to you in case you want to go back to a source to find more information, perhaps in response to a delegate that made a good criticism of the research. Beyond MUN, though, creating citations is also a skill that will be invaluable during

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your university studies, as many courses of study involve extensive research and writing.

NHSMUN’s preferred citation style is Chicago Full Note, which is the style used in NHSMUN Background Guides, but del-egates are free to use any recognized citation format in their position papers. Footnotes or endnotes are also encouraged, but not required. However, a Works Cited section at the end of the position paper or at the end of each topic is required, so don’t forget to include that!

One tool that our staff finds helpful for tracking and creating citations is Zotero. This is a free software that allows you to log your sources as you research them and then automatically create a works cited for all of your citations at the end. We find that Zotero produces citations with better accuracy than online tools like EasyBib. Zotero also allows you to create citations in many different styles, so if you are using Chicago style for NHSMUN and APA style for your history class, you can easily toggle be-tween the two.

Research for Beginners

Research Binders

Research binders are a staple of MUN. Any conference is likely to have many delegates carrying binders or notebooks of various sizes where they have collected their research. The proliferation of smartphones and other technology hasn’t replaced the practice of creating a researching binder, either! Many conferences may ban the use of technology in committee, but even if they don’t, many delegates find it helpful to bring a physical page or notecard with them during speeches to reference research material. It looks much more prepared than staring into a smartphone screen during a speech.

Like position papers, creating a research binder requires prioritiza-tion of information. There is an enormous amount of information out there, so a binder could be hundreds of pages long! A delegate could easily find the population of every city, town, and village in their country with only a little bit of effort. However, not all of this information is useful, and the more information there is in a research binder, the harder it is to find something. Therefore, we have a few tips for delegates starting to create their research binders.

Background Guides

Thankfully, students aren’t alone when it comes to research. Nearly every MUN conference in the world publishes research documents for each committee introducing students to the topics being debated. At IMUNA conferences and many others, these are called back-ground guides (BGs), although they go by other names as well. Conferences often pride themselves on the quality of their BGs, so they can be quite informative for delegates. Before doing any other research, students should familiarize themselves with their commit-tee’s BG as a useful springboard for research. Many delegates also print out the BG as the first item in their research binder. Longer BGs may be too bulky for a research binder, so students may want to

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create their own summary of the BG to include instead.

Discovering a Country: GREET

All research binders should start with information about the country being represented, which should be restricted to a few pages at most. This is where many delegates tend to print out everything they can find, making it more difficult to find the im-portant information. We teach the acronym GREET, broken down below.

Government

It’s simply not possible to accurately represent a country without understanding its form of government. Governments are as diverse as the people around the world. Countries can have monarchs with near absolute power or monarchs relegated to ceremonial duties. Democracies may decide to concentrate power in an individual president or keep power within the larger legislative body. Some countries have overt religious involvement in their government while others make religion in government illegal. Understanding the big picture of how a country’s government operates will help delegates understand how it perceives the world.

Religion

Religion can be a common bond between two people of different cultures who speak different languages. In this regard, govern-ments are no different. Many countries still primarily find allies within their religious group who are likely to understand their values. However, delegates should be wary of taking too broad a look at this. The world’s major religions all feature various sects that may work together or be bitterly divided. In most cases, these conflicts aren’t intrinsic to people’s beliefs, but are rather used by leaders to rally support for their cause. Take, for example, the intense rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia follows a form of Sunni Islam and Iran Shia Islam. Both countries are quite influential in their region, but they compete for influence by supporting Shia or Sunni factions in their neighboring countries. However, even within Sunni Islam, Saudi Arabia follows a fundamentalist sect called Wahhabism, which some other Sunni Muslims oppose.

Environment

A country’s environment is the geographic and climatic conditions in which it exists. Geography often has a profound influence on how a country develops. Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia, is an extremely mountainous country far away from the nearest coast-line. This has led the country to develop smaller, more remote villages rather than large urban centers; in fact, only 36% of its people live in cities (vs. a global average of about 54%).1 However, in a harsh desert country like Libya, much of which is covered by the hostile Sahara Desert, roughly 80% of its people are concentrated in a handful of urban areas. These environmental fac-tors will likely shape both countries views on topics regarding urbanization, slums, and the urban poor. For many countries, their environment can also be among their greatest enemies. Countries like Japan are prone to frequent, powerful earthquakes and countries like India are subject to dangerous monsoons. Both of these natural disasters and others take many lives each year, so they will shape both countries’ policy on disaster preparedness and relief. Finally, with global climate change playing a growing role in international relations, it’s also useful for delegates to understand the potential risks of climate change to their country.

Ethnicity

Understanding a country’s ethnic groups is a critical part of understanding a country’s policy on any issue. Reaching a firm defini-1 “Urban Population (% of Total) | Data,” The World Bank, accessed August 19, 2017, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS.

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tion for ethnicity is difficult, but it is commonly a group of people who share a common cultural heritage and practices. Interac-tions between ethnic groups within a country have been both a driver of conflict and of prosperity. Canada continues to work to manage its relationship with French Canadians and with its various First Nations. In the 1960s, Singapore, formerly part of Malaysia, was actually expelled from the country, in part because of tensions between the majority Chinese population of Singa-pore and the Malay population of Malaysia. All countries are host to multiple ethnicities, whether they are native to the country or immigrants to it. Understanding these dynamics will offer a unique insight into how the government perceives the world.

Trade

Wealth continues to be a major way in which a country’s prosperity is measured, so understanding your country’s economy is essential, especially what it trades with other countries. Sometimes, the economic profile is easy to understand. Many states on the Arabian Peninsula rely on oil exports to drive economic growth. Many of these states are also members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of countries that sets oil export caps and quotas to manipulate the global oil market. These countries are more likely to maintain positive relations given that their economic futures are intertwined. In addition to what a country produces, it’s also important to understand what other countries it trades with. For example, before the 2014 revolution in Ukraine, Russia was a close ally and a major trade partner, accounting for 24% of Ukraine’s exports. After the revolution and the contested annexation of Crimea by Russia, that number fell to just 12%.2 Understanding who a country trades with and how that changes over time will often indicate who the country’s closest allies are.

Where to Research

While a handy tool, there is still a lot of information to capture in GREET. However, the internet is full of fantastic resources that can help build an understanding of any country. Some of the resources we recommend are listed below:

• Wikipedia: Many teachers will attempt to steer students away from Wikipedia because it can be edited by anyone and is sometimes vandalized with false information. However, most pages are accurate and can provide a great summary of a country or topic. Wikipedia should still not be cited, though! Position papers should only cite sources that have cred-ibility in their field. Anyone can edit Wikipedia, though, expert or otherwise.

• The CIA World Factbook: This is a great statistical database that provides a wealth of information about every country in the world. In fact, it’s a bit of an old tradition in MUN for students to start their research here. There are some good uses for the Factbook, especially when trying to understand a country’s balance of trade. However, many delegates fall into the trap of just listing as many numbers as they can find and believing that is effective research. The Factbook is a great resource when looking for something specific, but it is recommended that delegates spend the bulk of their time on other sites.

• Committee Websites: Most UN agencies have well-run websites that can be valuable sources of information. This can include policy overviews about a topic, summaries of recent UN meetings, or even detailed breakdowns of what the committee is doing to fulfill its mission. For example, the website of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has detailed breakdowns of its operations by country. So, for the topic of “Preventing State Failure in South Sudan” (which is not explicitly related to food!), a student could check out the FAO’s page on South Sudan, where one of their priori-ties is “Increased resilience of livelihoods to threats and crisis.” In a room where most delegates would be focused on political violence, supporting the livelihood of individuals so that they don’t turn towards violence would be a unique

2 “Where Does Ukraine Export to? (2015),” The Observatory of Economic Complexity, accessed August 19, 2017, http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/ukr/show/all/2015/.

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and valuable approach!

• UN PaperSmart: Any delegate should be familiar with the UN’s past action on a topic before walking into commit-tee. For any UN documents, UN PaperSmart is the best place to find them. This searchable database contains links to agendas, Secretariat research, draft resolutions, and final resolutions for nearly every UN meeting that takes place. The ability to see draft resolutions is also helpful because looking at resolutions that did not pass is a great way to research potential solutions to a topic.

These resources are just a small sample of what’s available out there, and with time, delegates and FAs will develop their own sense of what resources are helpful. And remember, the goal of a research binder is not to have all possible information available during committee. Any internet connection will do a better job of storing all available data than a binder! However, the research binder is a log of what’s important for when delegates need to quickly pull an idea from their research.

Research for MUN Veterans

Delegate that have been to a few conferences already will likely be familiar with the sources described above. However, even ex-perienced delegates make some common mistakes and overlook some key sources that cause them to be less effective with their research. Therefore, this section will focus on two things: what information most delegates aren’t looking for and where they’re not looking for it. Delegates can research very well without the tips in this section. However, following these sugges-tions will turn an okay researcher into a great researcher.

What to Look For

It’s becoming clichéd to say that the world is a vast, interconnected place, but that is the mindset that delegates must take to researching their topics. Delegates too often get so focused in the specifics of their topic that they don’t see the relationships with other topics and ideas. This can severely limit the delegate’s knowledge of their country’s policy and hamper creativity when it comes to solutions.

Let’s look at an example to illustrate how delegates can expand their thinking. Somalia is a country that many delegates know to be the victim of numerous cycles of poverty, violence, and instability. These cycles are staple topic for security-related commit-tees, as the conflicts in Somalia have been documented extensively and are therefore easier to research. However, when many delegates research the violence in Somalia, they focus on the regional warlords (both Somali and Ethiopian) and the Islamist group al-Shabaab. Reasonably experienced delegates are likely to build solid understandings of how these groups operate and how they extort civilians by keeping them in a state of fear. But often delegates don’t ask why these groups exist the way they do. What sustains these groups? Why do young men whose families are terrorized by these groups eventually join them?

It won’t surprise most MUNers to hear that the violence in Somalia has created vast number of refugees, many of whom flee to Kenya. In fact, the refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, is among the largest in the world. It should also surprise few to learn that the standard of living is very low in these camps. In fact, what is happening is that al-Shabaab is using these camps as recruit-ing grounds, luring young men living in abject poverty to radicalization with the promise of wealth and power. This creates a cycle between militant groups driving refugees to Kenya, then recruiting them back to become militants themselves in Somalia. Therefore, no solution can claim to address the issue of militant violence in Somalia if it doesn’t address the issue of poverty in Somali refugee camps and in Somalia itself. Solving one without the other simply permits the cycle to continue. It may seem counter-intuitive to novice delegates to discuss poverty in a committee like DISEC, yet a comprehensive approach

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to these issues is necessary.

Usually, delegates are not able to simply intuit these complex dynamics. Instead, they come from diligent, open-minded research. Debate maps are a tool that IMUNA staff use during their topic research and during committee. They are a type of mind map that can help visualize the connections between various aspects of a topic and hint at new dimensions that may not have been considered yet. Below, we’ve outlined the process for creating a debate map and included an example from one of IMUNA’s staff members.

1. Take a blank piece of paper and write the name or central idea of the topic in the center of the page. Draw a circle around it.

2. Think of the major subtopics that show up in Google, or even the subtopics that Wikipedia lists. These should be broad. Write each of these around the main circle and circle them as well. Draw lines between the central circle and each subtopic.

3. Further breakdown these subtopics into their own subtopics, and draw more spokes connecting them back to their parent idea.

4. As more ideas are written out, think about the connections between subtopics. In the example above, a debate map might have the subtopics terrorism and refugees, which have sub-subtopics of recruitment and poverty, respectively. Based on the dialogue above, one could draw a spoke between the two of them to show a relationship between poverty and terrorist recruitment.

5. Once the map is starting to look complete, look for areas where the map is sparser. Where are there the fewest con-nections? Is there an idea that could create a connection between those ideas? Continue to brainstorm what might exist there.

Once the debate map is complete, it should provide a wide range of key terms to search for in Google. Not every term will generate a lot of research, which is okay! Sometimes this is because the connection doesn’t really exist, sometimes it’s simply because there hasn’t been a lot of research done on that yet. However, the ones that do generate lots of research will elevate a delegate’s thinking well beyond the average.

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Where to Look for It

Google will bring delegates to most high-quality resources eventually, but it’s also useful for delegates to build their mental library of good sources so that they can find information more quickly. This section will focus on resources that should be accessed by delegates routinely so that they can spend less time on Google and more time thinking about their research.

First, a note on statistics. Many of the resources below will link students to research databases that are great for grabbing numbers. Many delegates equate statistics and numbers with better research. On its face, it seems only natural for debaters to look for a battery of hard data to support their arguments. However, debate is about convincing other humans to agree with or sympathize with a point of view, and humans are motivated by far more than just numbers. Delegates should always be sure to pair numbers with context. Hearing that as of 2013, 11% of the world’s people were living in extreme poverty (less than USD 1.25 per day) isn’t going to mean as much without the context of what living in extreme poverty looks and feels like.

• UN PaperSmart: This was already discussed, but it bears repeating here. UN PaperSmart is the best way to access UN documents, especially those that aren’t approved UN resolutions. UN PaperSmart is the authoritative archive of every research document, every draft resolution, every note from the Secretary-General, and much more. This is the platform that real UN diplomats access daily. The system has a bit of a learning curve, especially when it comes to finding meet-ings and conferences relevant to a specific topic. However, the time investment needed to learn the system is time well spent.

• Dag Hammarskjöld Library: Named for the second Secretary-General of the UN, this library sits on the grounds of the UN Headquarters in New York, but its online component will be of more interest to delegates. It serves as a reposi-tory for UN documents and reports, so there is some overlap with the UN PaperSmart system. The library also seeks external publications related to the work of the UN or UN documents. Many of these are academic documents and can therefore be at a very high reading level. If delegates are willing to put in the time and effort required, the Library can provide valuable sources of information that the average delegate just won’t have at their disposal.

• World Bank: For topics that are at all related to global finance (and there are many!), the World Bank is a wonderful resource. In addition to being a key actor in global finance efforts, the World Bank also publishes numerous well-regarded reports about global development. Many of these reports don’t even focus on finance! Because they affect the implementation of loans in developing countries, there are also reports on topics like corruption, public services, urbanization, and more. Some reports are written by academics and can be more difficult to read, but again, the valuable information is worth the extra work.

• World Bank Open Data: While technically the same source, the power of this tool warrants its own entry. Open data is a searchable statistical database that quickly and easily displays key figures used to measure countries over time. While the CIA World Factbook provides snapshots of certain figures, the World Bank can show a figure for one or many countries on the same chart that can span decades. All of the data is also downloadable, too, for delegates who have the skills to analyze it. Delegates should check out the sheer number of indicators that can be searched if they aren’t impressed already.

• Global Think Tanks: There are many great think tanks around the world whose role essentially amounts to bringing together some of the best minds in the world under one roof. Therefore, like the World Bank, these think tanks can be a great source for finding real reports used by professional diplomats and politicians. Some think tanks that are well known for their balanced perspectives include The Brookings Institute, The Carnegie Endowment for International

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Peace, The Council on Foreign Relations, and The International Institute for Strategic Studies, among many others. However, sometimes these reports can show considerable author bias. In the hands of a great delegate, this bias can be a tool instead of a pitfall, but only if the delegate is aware of it.

This is but a small sampling of the kind of great resources that are out there. However, most great sources come from recog-nized entities that attract experts in their field. If a website has a dated design and isn’t affiliated with a reputable organization, it’s most likely not going to provide the kind of deep insights that can make a delegate stand out in committee.

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Sample Position Paper

Below is a sample position paper from NHSMUN 2018 on the topic of “The Situation in Lake Chad Basin” from a delegate representing Sweden. This sample is included not to suggest that every position paper should be exactly like this one, but rather to illustrate what is discussed in the three sections of the position paper and the level of detail we expect. Many position papers are much longer than this one, but we like this example for it’s depth and brevity.

I. Topic Background

The gravity of the situation in Lake Chad Basin is beyond the acknowledgement it is given by the public eye and to understand the full situation, there is a need to delve deep into the origins of the start of the conflict, and how it has entered the minds of this committee. To understand the creation and implementation of Boko Haram, there is a need to see where the genesis of the theology the extremists group was added onto. The origin of Islam was traced back to the seventh century in Saudi Arabia when it was introduced by the Prophet Muhammad.(Patheos, 2008) Soon after his death, the religion was split into two factions; the Sunnis and the Shiites. The Sunnis, which take up about 85%-90% of today’s Muslims, believed that Muhammad’s successors-the four caliphs- had taken his place of the leader of Islam. In contrast, the Shiites, who today are the minority of Muslims, felt at though the successors and leaders of Islam were only the successors of the fourth caliph, Ali. Although they had some differences in theology, they follow some main core concepts including the holy book The Quran and the five main pillars of the faith which are Shahadah, Salat, Zakat, Sawm, and Hajj. (What are the Five Pillars of Islam?, 2002) Boko Haram, who are more formally known as Jamā’atu Ahli is-Sunnah lid-Da’wati wal-Jihād, are a Sunni fundamentalist faction whose creation was influenced by the Wahhabi Mission. (CNN, 2018) This religious movement was off the branch of the Sunnis that was described by words such as orthodox and a predominantly cult-like reform movement which enforced a strict version of the Sharia Law. In 2002, Muhammad Yusuf instituted Boko Haram to enforce the belief, stated in the definition itself, that western education is a sin. Although the initial focus concentrated on the resistance of western or any teachings other than Islam, in 2009, Boko Haram launched military operations to become an Islamic state similar to the efforts to make an Islamic state in Syria.(BBC, 2017) By 2013, they became a designated terrorist group to the US. By May of that year, President Goodluck Jonathan called a state of emergency in the three northern states, where Boko Haram had obtained the most power : Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa due to the escalating violence and concern excavating from the international community. On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram attracted the most international attention through the Chibok schoolgirl abductions which engrossed many common people. (BBC, 2017) 276 secondary school girls were abducted from Chibok, Borno State and despite efforts by the Nigerian government, 219 girls are still missing. Videos of these girls have been broadcasted through social media by Boko Haram, but their location is unknown.

The Lake Chad Basin region as a whole was infiltrated under the power of this group due to several factors. The first being economic and social marginalization. (Humanitarian Practice Network, 2017) In all of the countries bordering Lake Chad ex-cept Chad, have capitals distant from the lake, which provides a disconnect between the issues occuring and the willingness for the people in power to make the trip to see and tackles the tasks before them; what could not be seen was not considered as a high priory. The second factor was the government’s poor governance. (Humanitarian Practice Network, 2017)Because the four countries have struggled with socioeconomic progress since their independence, much of the government has replaced the rule of law with corruption and has had an immense loss of power. The only real increases resulting from the revitalization of leaders have been increases in marginalisation and insecurity. Lack of international interest surrounding the region is a result of bias towards Nigeria as being a rich nation that promotes a “democracy”; therefore, able to challenge Boko Haram and the issues surrounding the Lake Chad Region. Coupled with extrinsic issues, the region itself has faced environmental hurdles that has made it difficult for fisherman and farmers to produce enough income to uphold their livelihoods, resulting in the migration of many civilians to surrounding countries as refugees.

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II. Country Policy

Like many other countries within the EU and many western countries in general, the delegation of Sweden recognizes the se-verity of terrorism and has spent the most recent set of years drafting counter-terrorism plans to defy terrorist activities both nationally and internationally. The Swedish counter-terrorism strategy was drafted in 2014 and divided up into three sections : prevent, preempt, and protect. (Government Offices of Sweden, 2015) The biggest priority of the three for our delegation is prevention within our own country as well as within the African countries involved in the Lake Chad Basin Region. Although we are aware that Boko Haram has taken control of most of the region, we think it is extremely important that we work with NGOs within the region to continue to spread awareness to civilians surrounding the gravity associated with making deals or creating relationships with terrorists. As a nation, we believe that incorporating ourselves with a problem in an country outside our own should only occur when it becomes the only way to improve the situation. We support providing aid and education but also stress the fact that no real change can occur unless the people within the countries are willing enough and active enough to create change. Collaboration is valuable and allowing more and less experienced countries develop anti-terrorism plans together will allow for the greatest anti-terrorism plans. We believe the government is the mitigator and for efforts to overturn terrorism to work, all governmental agencies within and outside of the capital (i.e. police forces) should be provided a job in the effort. (Government Offices of Sweden, 2015) In addition to creating a anti-terrorism plan, the delegation of Sweden believes that the upkeep of the plan is just as important through the use of annual analysis and monitoring, and evaluations (Government Offices of Sweden, 2015) that help our government update our plan to changing circumstances.

III. Proposed Solutions

To begin to discuss an issue as complex and ongoing as the situation surrounding the Lake Chad Basin region, progress must be made systematically within the surrounding governments to create a network of communication that makes the distribution of information not only fast but reliable. One of the main concerns that is at the center of the this region in the constant conflict with Boko Haram. Boko Haram has the ability to fund itself and its terror activities through taxation of the regions under their control, profit off of illicit trade and activity such as drug trafficking and kidnapping, and external aide from individuals within powerful positions in both private and public offices. In a single year alone, Boko Haram is able to raise millions of dollars providing them enough strength in the regions they’ve occupied that there is little backlash against their presence. (Wall Street Journal, 2017) Additionally with economies within the governments in the region that are at their “arc of instability” (UNDP, 2017) due to environmental crisis influencing many important industries in the Lake Chad region, the terrorist’s groups’ addi-tional exploitation of resources have put countries at insufficient standings of not only being able to support their own people but allow their governments to be run in an efficient way. In order to halt the funding of Boko Haram, the delegation of Sweden proposes the use of economic finance cells that would be created to target the networks within which the terrorist group is able to receive their funding. The finance cell would analyze financial intelligence in order to prevent any potential fundraising from either private entities or branching terrorist organizations that are in allegiance with Boko Haram. It would be requested that members from the Economic Community for Western African States (ECOWAS) participate in this financial cell network to al-low the ability to monitor transactions from great distances with the continent. The analysts would be used in a two part process : (1) The first set of analysts will be ECOWAS personnel who would analyze the initial data coming out of the networks that they have agreed to provide information for. These reports would show the financial inconsistencies that is linked to terrorist funding and see where countries may need financial aid from the global community(2) Once data has been analyzed, the reports will be sent to World Bank representatives to cross reference data and reports to ensure authentication of the initial reports and add any additional findings to the original report. Once these reports are made and confirmed, an analysis of the report, without any classified or sensitive country information, can be made public. This will be able to appease nations who oppose the idea of a

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financial cell as sovereignty is not being breached because members of the African countries are actively involved in the process.

In addition to funding from outside groups, the effect of the changing climate has intensely influenced the ability for citizens

within the nation or within refugee camps from a way to support themselves. As a result of rising temperatures and decreasing

number of days of rains in tangent with the monopolization of the lake chad basin by Boko Haram, the farmers and fishermen

can no longer find ways to produce enough of a sustainable food source. Currently, (put stat about malnutrition). As a resolve to

this, the delegation of Sweden proposes that partnerships are made with experts from surrounding universities and government

agencies through the World Food Programme (WFP) who can examine the changing landscape and teach new farming tech-

niques that can allow them to use the land that they have better from seed multiplication to nutritional boost to not only grow

an additional food source but provide skills in the agricultural sector that can open possible job opportunities.

For those who have been physically displaced from their home regions to refugee camps, we propose the use for a more stream-

lined system. One of the major issues when dealing with refugees is the fact that many of the estimates made for the total

number versus the actual number of refugees has been recorded to be upto 100,000. With discrepancies like these, the resources

needed for people within the camps can and does fall short resulting in larger issues like extreme malnutrition and constant

outbreaks of diseases. The delegation of Sweden proposes the utilization of a data collection system that provides each refugee

that enters a refugee camp, whether they are an adult or a child, with a identification card that provides each person with a unique

barcode that allows them to be accounted for. Everytime they are to get food from the meal services or get medical care, they

would be able to scan their card so both their location and the facilities and resources are accounted for. This bar code system not

only allows refugee camps to be able to account for who and how long people in their camps are staying but also when facilities

themselves are running short and aid is needed. This barcode system would allow personnel from not only within the camp, but

outside the camp to be able to access the database and make the information public within the united nations to request funding

from UN bodies or countries individually.

The delegation of Sweden believes that it is imperative for citizens and refugees to learn to be as independent as possible when

living with the Lake Chad Basin region to give as little chance for the people to become dependent to the terrorists within the

region. Much of the time, a way that people can become indebted to Boko Haram is through accepting resources they need and

have no way of acquiring. Through short term thinking, they feel inclined to meet their present needs and lack the understand-

ing that once they take from Boko Haram, the group may feel inclined to force them to carry out action for Boko Haram. For

this reason, we propose that education is facilitated throughout villages and refugee camps to stress this idea. In addition, to

providing basic education, the delegation of Sweden proposes the use of a “How to deal with interactions with Boko Haram”

course with curriculum drafted by analysts and experts of the economic, political, and social interests of the reason and who can

not only get across in the people’s native language that they understand why they may be opening communication with terrorist

groups but provide reasons to why that results in more negative outcomes than positive ones. These seminars should not only

get across this message but also the message that they have support from organizations both within and outside the region. With

this education we want to provide not only practical support but emotional support as well.

The National High School Model United Nations Con-ference (NHSMUN) is a project of IMUNA, a non-profit organization formally associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications (UN-DGC). IMUNA is dedicated to promoting global issues education through simulation.

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