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Course Description
Course Objectives
Course Requirements
Grading Scale
Required Readings
Important Dates
This one-credit hour course is designed to prepare students to participate in the American Model United Nations in Chicago, IL from November 17-November 20, 2007. This year, Drake University will send a delegation representing Austria to the American Model United Nations. This course will center around assignments and activities which will prepare Drake's Model UN team for participation in this simulation.
The Department of Politics and International Relations seeks to induct students into the community of liberally educated individuals who are capable of understanding government and politics in terms of the theories, concepts, and tools of sophisticated political analysis which characterize the discipline of political science. The liberal-arts dimension of our mission stems from our belief that all people are embedded in a political environment which acts upon them in ways they must understand if they are to function effectively as active participants in a democratic society. Our goal, therefore, is not to train professional political scientists, but rather to produce the liberally educated citizen who is fluent in the language of politics and political analysis and thereby has a foundation for both citizenship in a democratic society and successful training in a job, in a graduate school, or in a professional school. Such a person has the capacity to recognize and evaluate assumptions, implications, and causal relationships pertaining to government and politics and, by extension, to other realms of human experience. Go to the home page of the Department of Politics and International Relations for more information on the basic objectives of the general program and upper-level courses in the department.
Additional course-specific objectives include the following:
1. To give students an opportunity to learn about how the UN works in practice through participation in this simulation
2. To develop students' teamwork skills through preparation for the Model UN as part of a delegation representing a particular country
3. To improve writing skills through the background position papers and draft resolutions required for participation in this simulation
4. To develop verbal communication skills through the opportunities for deliberation and negotiation with delegates representing other countries during the UN simulation
1. Participation, Peer Evaluations, and Portfolios (40%): Obviously, students will be required to participate in the Model UN simulation. Because the central purpose of this course is participation in the Model UN, I cannot give you credit for the course if serious illness or family emergency prevents your participation in the actual simulation. In this unfortunate event, I will authorize your dropping the class without a grade even if the official deadline for doing so has passed.
The great majority of your preparation time will be spent within your delegations, and we will not have a formal class time. (However, we will try to schedule a regular meeting time for discussing logistical issues, for turning in assignments, and for other questions and answers.) Because we will not have a formal class time, peer evaluations will be a crucial component of your participation grade. I will evaluate students' performance as a team in this simulation. Accordingly, after the simulation is over, students will be required to turn in written comments on each member's contribution to your delegation. (You should write a paragraph or so for each member of your delegation.) You also should comment on your own contributions to your delegation.
Your delegation also will be required to keep a portfolio of relevant preparatory documents, UN resolutions, and documentation of the work you complete at the simulation. Note: I do not expect each of you to submit an individual portfolio. Rather, the portfolio should represent a collaborative effort by all members of your delegation to compile your work from both before and during the simulation. Please be sure to include a clear record of who is submitting the various components of the portfolio for purposes of evaluation. Your delegation's portfolio should include the following work that you will complete before the simulation: your country background brief, a list of names and contact information for delegates on each committee, your position papers, and your draft resolutions. You also may want to include relevant UN resolutions and other UN documents that are relevant to the agenda topics for each committee. Your delegation's portfolio also should include the following from the actual simulation: resolutions considered by each committee, a record of action on the various resolutions within each committee, and any additional documentation or notes that delegates used during the simulation. I will use these portfolios in evaluating your participation in the simulation. I also expect your delegation to use the portfolio as an aid for your participation in the simulation. When the General Assembly meets in plenary session, each delegate should have an understanding of the various items that come before the assembly. To this end, the portfolio should be a resource that you use to learn about what is going on in each committee. My assumption is that the portfolios will be most useful if you organize them by committee. I expect that the portfolios will be most useful if most of the material is organized by committee.
2. Issue Briefs (10 %): Each delegate will be required to complete a written brief on the agenda items that their committee will consider. These issue briefs should do three things: 1)discuss the background and importance of the issues on their committee's agenda; 2) explore key policy considerations and controversies that shape discussion of this issue; and 3) highlight additional questions that are central to understanding this issue and Your briefs should be 4-5 double-spaced pages with standard margins and fonts. Because each committee will be submitting an independent issue brief, I will grade each committee separately. If there are two delegates on a committee, they will be graded together.
3. Country Profile and Background Brief (10%): Each individual delegate must complete the Nation Guide form found on p. 23 of the UNA A Guide to Delegate Preparation.Your completion of this profile will be worth 5% of your final grade. In addition, each country delegation must write a background brief which gives an overview of your country's economic, social, and political system, the major international issues which concern your country, and the ideological perspectives likely to shape your country's positions at the United Nations. This brief should be 4-5 double-spaced pages with standard margins and fonts. Each country delegation will be graded as a whole on this assignment, which will be worth 5% of your final grade.
3. Position Papers (30%): Country delegations will be divided into individuals or teams that will serve on each committee or on the Economic and Social Council. Each individual or team must research the agenda topics for their committee or council and write position papers for these topics. Note: if there are two delegates on a particular committee, I want each delegate to work on all of the agenda items being considered by that committee. Because both of you will be engaged in deliberations on all agenda items, it is essential that you work together to prepare your position papers for these topics. You will need to write two types of position papers for this assignment. First, you will write an "internal" position paper for each topic. This paper represents the views and strategy of your delegation that you will not fully share with other delegations. It should include the following types of information: a) what you will say publicly about an agenda item; b) your knowledge of any "behind the scenes" diplomacy; c) information on allies and adversaries and their perspectives; d) your negotiating position; e) the issues you will press for; f) and any language that you believe must or must not be included in a resolution in order for you to support it. These internal position papers should be 1-2 double-spaced pages (with standard margins and fonts) for each agenda item. In addition, the American Model UN requires that each delegation submit a series of public position papers on each of the specific agenda topics listed for each committee and council. (See the sample public position paper on p. 25 of A Guide to Delegate Preparation. These public position papers will be open to other delegations, so you will only include that information that you want other countries to see. These public position papers should be no more than one-half page in length. The representative handbook provides details about formatting requirements for these papers. Students will be graded on the specific positions papers which they write. In some cases, two students will be working together to write position papers on a specific agenda item for the country which they are representing. In these cases, you will be graded jointly. Although individual students are responsible for writing the position papers for their committee or council, all members of each country's delegation should read and critique the position papers of other delegates representing their country. In the end, you are representing your country as part of a delegation, and you need to have a consistent, coordinated strategy. All policy papers for a specific country delegation will be assembled as part of a package and sent to the American Model United Nations by the date specified in the representative handbook.
4. Draft Resolutions (10%): The UN simulation will be dedicated in great part to negotiating agreement on draft resolutions within the General Assembly committees or the Economic and Social Council and, ultimately, presented on the floor in plenary session. It is essential that all students participating in this simulation learn about the form and content of these types of resolutions before arriving at the conference. Accordingly, every student participating in the Model UN must write at least one draft resolution. These resolutions will be short, typically just a paragraph and certainly not more than one page. You should write a resolution independently, and then you will work within your delegations to refine and revise these resolutions. See pp. 30-34 of A Guide to Delegate Preparation for information on how to write resolutions. The representative handbook also provides guidelines for writing draft resolutions.
5. Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is the act of trying to pass off someone else's ideas, words, thoughts or inventions as one's own. Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional, but it is a violation of academic integrity in either case. You must acknowledge your use of other's work when you quote them word for word (you must use quotation marks in the case of direct quotations), paraphrase, borrow ideas, incorporate factual information from someone else's work, or rely on another person's organization of material. You do not need to provide citations for common knowledge, but it is better to err on the side of caution if you have any doubts. If your paper includes uncited information and/or I suspect plagiarism, I will not grade your paper until you provide satisfactory documentation of your sources. If I discover a case of cheating or plagiarism, I will impose the most serious penalty allowed under university regulations and contingent on the nature of the violation. In cases of egregious plagiarism or cheating, I will give you a failing grade for the course and may recommend additional penalties at the college or university level, including suspension or expulsion. See the statement on Academic Honesty and Integrity at the Department of Politics and IR homepage for further details. Also, see me if you still have questions about academic dishonesty.
A 90-100 (Excellent)
B 80-89 (Good)
C 70-79 (Satisfactory)
D 60-69 (Poor)
F 0-59 (Failure)
See my statement on Basic Grading Standards under the Course Documents tab on the Blackboard course website.
1. United Nations Association, A Guide to Delegate Preparation (UNA-USA, 2002)
2. The American Model United Nations Homepage . This page will include invaluable information, including the agenda, topics, background information, and rules and procedure. The AMUN page also includes links the representative handbooks, rules of procedure for the simulation, and the issues handbook for this years conference. All delegates must familiarize themselves with this site and the information it contains.
3. The United Nations Homepage and the also will be an invaluable sources of information.
4. In order to perform well in the Model UN simulation, you obviously will need to keep abreast of current world politics. To this end, I recommend that you subscribe to one of the major national daily newspapers, such as the The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, The Washington Post. These papers provide far more thorough political coverage than local dailes. You also can obtain at least basic information in some weekly newsmagazines or by following CNN. In addition to these examples, most national newspapers and television networks maintain on-line sources of news. Finally, you can use the Resources and Reference Page of Cowles Library to research specific issues in current world politics. At this site, you can find access to full text newspaper articles as well as a variety of other political and legal resources.
5. Online Journals/ Academic Universe/ Lexis-Nexis: You can access a variety of resources on world politics, including full text newspaper articles, legal resources, and reference information on specific countries, on the Resources and Reference Page of Cowles Library.
6. Finally, Foreign Affairs Online is an excellent web resource which provides links to sites in a variety of categories, including international law, human rights, and the United Nations.
CLASS SCHEDULE AND IMPORTANT DATES
Note: This timeline is subject to change based on deadlines provided by the AMUN. I am including it to give you a sense of the work that needs to be completed. I will provide specific assignment deadlines as the course proceeds.
Week 1: Introduction to Model UN and discussion of committee assignments; A Guide to Delegate Preparation, Chapter 1
Week 2: Historical Background on the United Nations; A Guide to Delegate Preparation, Chapter 2
Week 3: Introduction to Agenda; Read AMUN Issues handbook available on the American Model United Nations Homepage .
Week 4: Discussion of conference preparation
Week 5: Issue Briefs due
Week 6: Learning about your country; A Guide to Delegate Preparation, Chapter 3
Week 7: Country Profiles and Background Briefs due (Nation Guide Forms are in A Guide to Delegate Preparation, p. 23)
Week 8: Forming Coherent and Consistent Country Positions; A Guide to Delegate Preparation, Chapters 5-10
Week 9: Public Position Papers due (typically must be posted to the AMUN website by the end of the third week of October)
Week 10: Writing Resolutions at AMUN; A Guide to Delegate Preparation, Chapter 4
Week 11: Draft Resolutions due; HEAD DELEGATES: Do not forget to submit the credentials of your delegates to AMUN. You can do this online! They will have our credentials ready for us upon arrival if we submit these in advance.
Week 12: Negotiating, Caucusing, and Speaking at AMUN; A Guide to Delegate Preparation, Chapter 4; Read the Rules of Procedure Handbook on the American Model United Nations Homepage
Week 13: Internal Position Papers due
11/17-20 American Model United Nations in Chicago
Week 14: Debriefing
Week 15: Portfolios due