Aslan Media
Wed02222012
Last update01:11:46 AM GMT
WE ARE PROUD TO SUPPORT
PASSIONATE YOUTH
The McGill Model United Nations Assembly (McMUN) has been working hard to advance the standard of the Model United Nations experience since 1990.
The extensive nature of globalization has made us increasingly co-dependent, as well as jointly responsible for the social welfare of the international community. At McMUN, we believe that today’s youth are morally compelled to consider foreign ethical, economic, health and social issues cooperatively, multi-dimensionally, and in new and innovative ways.
Ranked the fourth most competitive and third largest MUN conference in North America, as well as serving as Canada’s premier conference, McMUN has established itself as a driving force of innovation and excellence in the world of collegiate MUN. With a focus on experiential learning, and keen competition within the context of a shared community experience, McMUN is the cutting edge youth forum for international dialogue on current issues.
We work hard to make sure our 24 committee simulations accurately reflect the relevant dynamics of the international system, by running both traditional Model UN assemblies and more unconventional and engaging real-time simulations, such as an interactive World Economic Forum, the Boeing-Airbus Price War, and a three-committee joint exercise of Libya 2011.
The accumulated knowledge acquired from 21 years of institutionalized experience drives us to an ever-increasing standard of performance. Our goal is to make McMUN 2012 our most exciting and relevant conference experience to date.
THIS YEAR'S THEME
Recent developments in the transmission and dissemination of information have fundamentally altered the academic understanding of International Relations. With the changing political landscape of the Middle East, the rapid and effective organization of the Occupy movement, and- closer to home- the surge of activism that has taken place at McGill University this past semester. Today, sentiments of both outrage and compassion are transmitted instantaneously across thousands of miles with a clarity that has evoked unprecedented empathy and, consequently, unprecedented responses. Messages and global ideas are no longer constrained by the cold tap of Morse Code or the crisp sheets of mainstream newspapers.
McMUN 2012 emphasizes the dynamism of International Relations in the 21st century, where "Information" is the primary agent of change. While luminaries such as Joseph Nye and Paul Krugman have referred to this era as the "Information Age," we have only recently seen the new power and meaning of this label. From the individual and local level, to wide sweeping systemic changes, the full impact of information as a commodity is finally being realized. It is this structural shift of the IR hierarchy towards a more bottom-up phenomenon, where individuals and local activism are major players, that will be the long-lasting legacy of the Information Age.
McMUN's committees reflect 21st century modes of conveying and analyzing information and the pervasive influence this interchange has on IR. Formal debates in the UN are not the only forum for understanding and effecting change between nations; businesses, movies, literature and the mass media have played integral parts in this revolution. For example, McMUN 2012 will be running a "21st Media Strategies” Committee to discuss the increasing influence of the media and what kind of role it wants to play as the international relations arena evolves, and these themes will be present in committees from the Boeing-Airbus Price War to Even in larger, more bureaucratic organizations such as the World Economic Forum, we are trying to simulate the impact of the transfer and accessibility of information by using a customized, online, networking service. This online network would allow delegates to quickly publish, read, and assimilate information, thereby affecting their policy preferences and interests to be reflected in committee debate.
These are only a few examples of the many committees that will require delegates to consider he expanding role of information in IR and how they choose to interact with it. The mandate of any MUN conference is to help prepare prospective leaders and academics to deal with the real issues the world is facing, and to have the skills and tools to be better able to resolve them. McMUN 2012 will be a unique insight into the information-centric IR world they are entering, and is sure to go a long way in fulfilling that mandate. The opportunity to translate academia and policy into action in a simulation format will allow delegates to truly experience the transformation of the dynamics of world politics and the new bottom line: information.
Delegate Interviews
LEARN ABOUT THE COMMITTEES
INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS OF MONTREAL
INSTITUT DES AFFAIRES PUBLIQUES DE MONTRÉAL
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Beryl Wajsman is editor-in-chief of The Suburban newspapers, publisher of The Métropolitain, Quebec’s first bilingual political journal since Cité Libre, and founder and president of the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, an influential national social action advocacy organization. For three years he broadcast the critically acclaimed “Last Angry Man” radio newsmagazine on the Corus network and then hosted a weekly news hour on Astral Media’s CJAD. He is a regular contributor to CTV’s “National Affairs” broadcast. After earning two law degrees at McGill University, he has spent over thirty years combining the worlds of politics, community activism and media. His long involvement in federal politics have ranged from organizational, policy and riding board positions under Prime Minister Trudeau, to directing national justice studies in Ottawa to serving as Irwin Cotler’s first executive assistant.
