Model United Nations

Model United Nations is a simulation of international conferences held by the United Nations. Each participant takes on the role of a delegate of a country of the UN in the various committees that are part of the organisation, either in the General Assembly or in the Security Council.

Participants are given a topic on which they will debate and negotiate. They must prepare themselves by researching the position of the country they will be playing on the topics they will address in committee. The aim of the debate is to come to an agreement in the shape of a resolution for most UN committees, or of an executive decision for some other types of committees.

Some MUN also include international organisations that are not affiliated to the United Nations, such as the European Union, the African Union, or NATO.

1949 : The birth of Model United Nations

The first MUN was officially organised at St Lawrence University (New York), on February 11th 1949, and the concept of MUN dates back to 1920, when the League of Nations had barely been formed. The idea of the first conference came from two men: professor Harry Reiff, head of the history and government policy department, and professor Otto L. George, who had been advisor to the US delegation in 1945 during the San Francisco conference. Just like today, the first MUN gathered participants, called delegates, from a few different universities: McGill University in Canada, Adelphi University and Middlebury University. The concept of MUN took off fast in more prestigious universities such as harvard, Berkeley or Stanford.

1987 : MUN reaches Europe

In Europe, one had to wait for the creation of the European International Model United Nations by a group of American students in the Netherlands (the conference still exists today as TEIMUN in the Hague). Nowadays, there are more than a hundred MUN conferences taking place each year in Europe, organised by many universities in almost all European countries. France has a few MUNs in some cities, most notably Paris, Lyon, Tours, Strasbourg, Nice or Bordeaux.

MUN in France

Mun has existed in France for about a decade in the largest metropolitan cities. The biggest French MUN conference is the Paris International Model United Nations (PIMUN).

Most conferences are organised by universities or secondary schools, contrary to many other countries where a lot of conferences are organised in high schools or even as early as middle school.

While MUN are not well-known to the general public, MUN conferences are often supported by authors, famous public figures, international companies or banks.

MODEL UNITED NATIONS

MUN in France