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The time you spend preparing yourself for the Mid-American Model United Nations (MAMUN) will pay off many times over once the conference begins.  In order to take advantage of all that MAMUN has to offer, you must be willing to learn all you can about your nation, the issues, the United Nations, diplomacy and the rules of procedure.  There are countless ways to adequately prepare yourself for MAMUN, and the ideas we present here are not intended to be exhaustive.  Many times the manner in which a delegation prepares itself depends on the resources readily available to it.  Schools in large metropolitan areas with easy access to UN Depositories will find the availability of UN documents a valuable resource.  Schools with less access will need to rely on what embassies can send them or on occasional trips to cities with Depositories.  All schools with Internet access should be able to access www.un.org. In either case, taking full advantage of the resources available to you will make your preparation more complete.

 FIRST THINGS FIRST- WRITE YOUR EMBASSY

 Regardless of what approach you take to preparation, you should take advantage of the immense help embassies are sometimes willing to provide.  Many embassies are very cooperative with Model UN delegates and ship boxes of information in response to written inquires.  Others are not as well-staffed and may not respond at all.  In either case, you won’t know what’s out there unless you ask.  Use http://www.embassy.org/ to easily reach your country’s embassy.  A formal letter requesting information, accompanied by a list of the topics we’ll be debating, will usually get some kind of response.  You may also consider writing the Washington embassies, though you’ll have to locate that address on your own.  (If anyone from your school plans on being in the Washington or New York area, ask them to stop in at the missions or embassies of your nation.  In most cases, they can walk away with armfuls of information, speeches and position papers.)  Keep in mind, though, that embassies can be notoriously slow in responding to requests from Model UN delegates.  So don’t sit and wait for an answer - there’s much to be done!

 GETTING STARTED

 When faced with the monumental task of preparing to represent a country you may know little about, getting started can be the toughest part.  We recommend starting with the issues you’ll be debating at MAMUN.  In this way, you don’t need to concern yourself with conceptualizing a “foreign” view of things and can concentrate on the historical aspects of the issues.  Once you understand what has led to the problem, you should learn about the nation you’ll be representing.  Putting together what you’ve learned about your country with what you understand about the issues will come easier if you take on these tasks in an orderly and systematic fashion.  Once you are comfortable with your nation and the issues, learning how the UN system works, how diplomats interact and how the rules of procedure are used can be done with greater ease.

 THE ISSUES

 Each Model UN delegate will be responsible for the four topics in the committee to which he/she is assigned plus their delegation’s assigned opening presentation (see pg. 7) or a position paper (see pg. 13.) 

Each school, as part of their registration fee, receives a Model UN Survival Kit from the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA).  The booklet entitled Issues before the General Assembly is an excellent resource for developing a solid background on most of the issues we’ll debate at MAMUN.  Like the short summaries in our handbook, however, what you get from Issues... cannot constitute all of your research on the topics.

 Your next step depends a bit on the resources your school and your community have to offer.  We recommend at least one trip to a UN Depository in your area.  UN Depositories are located at large libraries throughout the Mid-American area.  The Detroit Public Library (313-833-1000), the University of Michigan Graduate Library and the Michigan State University Library are all UN Depositories.  We highly recommend a phone call to the Documents Librarian before your trip to arrange for some guidance once you get there.  He or she will explain the procedures for accessing the documents section and any restriction on removing documents from the library.

 Keep in mind that UNA-USA has more detailed Fact Sheets on your topics.  In your Model UN Survival Kit is a list of UNA-USA publications.  Some are free and the cost of most others is quite small.  There are many local UNA-USA offices throughout the region.  Some have resource centers where documents can be borrowed or purchased.

 The United Nations Chronicle is an excellent source for information on the issues.  If your school library does not subscribe to it, your club or class should insist that they start doing so, and that they acquire as many back issues of the Chronicle as possible.  Another helpful, internationally respected magazine is The Economist, which contains not only detailed issue reporting but (more importantly) world viewpoints that are separate from American viewpoints.

 Developing an in-school collection of articles on the issues is also a good way to compile information.  Schools should subscribe to at least one, but preferably several, national newspapers such as the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, etc.  Assigning someone to clip articles from the papers and file them by topic should be an on-going part of any good Model UN club or class.

Keep in mind that sources like those listed in the previous section may have a decidedly “Western” slant to their coverage.  You should not rely on these newspapers in forming your delegation’s position on the issues.  Their objectivity is always subject to question and great care should be taken in using them as sources for policy.  The World Press Review can often expose you to a non-Western perspective.

 YOUR NATION

 By the time you get a good grip on the topics, you may already have formed some opinions on them.  In order to develop a proper perspective on the issues from your nation’s viewpoint (the one you’re obliged to argue at MAMUN), you’ll now need to learn as much as you can about your nation.

Your letter(s) to the missions and embassies may have yielded some valuable information on your country, but that won’t be enough to do a thorough job at MAMUN.  You must prepare yourself well enough to spend five days as the ambassador from your assigned nation.  As such, you’ll want to gather information on such things as:

          Physical Characteristics: 

Geography, climate, topography, neighboring states, access to water, land usage, natural resources, etc.

             Economic Characteristics: 

Economic system, trading partners, major imports/exports, agriculture, industry, services, currency, GNP/per capita GNP, memberships in international economic organizations, etc.

             Political Characteristics: 

Political system, names and backgrounds of leaders, military alliances, memberships in international political organizations, military strength, diplomatic ties, etc.

             Cultural Characteristics: 

Population, size, ethnic and racial composition, languages, religious affiliations, occupations, etc.

 There are many good sources to accumulate the data above.  The United Nations keeps statistics on hundreds of political, economic and social categories.  The United States State Department also has profiles of every country in the UN and can provide information free upon request.  Your congressman may also be helpful in providing information, though this resource varies greatly in its dependability.

 The Political Handbook of the World, The Encyclopedia of the Third World and World Bank Atlas are excellent sources of information on every country.  Be sure to seek out the most recent edition of these volumes before drawing any conclusions.

 If you’ve created files of clippings on the issues as suggested above, you’ll want to include a search of the papers for articles on your country, your allies and your enemies.

 THE UN SYSTEM

 You may develop a keen understanding of the issues and your nation, but unless you understand the framework in which the debate takes place, you will not be able to participate to any great extent.  As such, the more you know about the United Nations, its organs, specialized agencies and other affiliated organizations, the more advantage you can take of the knowledge you’ve acquired. 

 Everyone’s United Nations, published by UNA-USA, is an excellent introduction to the UN system.  You may need to go no further than this source in order to adequately understand the system.  If you have an interest in a more in-depth understanding, however, the following list of books should be helpful:

 ·         Swords Into Plowshares by Inis Claude

·         The United Nations as a Political Institution by H.G. Nichols

·         Networks of Interdependence by Harold Jacobson

·         The United Nations Charter by Leland Goodrich, et al.

·         The United Nations by Robert Riggs and Jack Plano