Disarmament & International Security

Topic A: Minimizing and Controlling the Role of Private Military Companies (PMCs)

In recent years, specialized private companies have increasingly offered military and police services, dramatically changing the role of the state by ending a long-standing state monopoly in these areas. Beginning in the 1990s, private security companies grew rapidly around the globe, providing guards and police-type security services and eventually out-numbering regular police forces. At the same time, international mercenary activities increasingly took a corporate form and companies of this type began to operate in conflict zones, led by former military officers and soldiers of fortune enjoying close ties to diplomatic and intelligence services of major countries. Unlike state military and police forces, these private companies operate beyond the realm of legal accountability and public oversight, and they enable states and industrial companies to engage in military operations, seize valuable natural resources, terrorize citizens and overthrow governments without public knowledge. Because they are available for hire, these companies are the ultimate neoliberal re-invention of the state, putting armed force at the direct service of those who can pay for it.

The purpose of this committee would be to discuss, how/if to curtail PMC militant activity in conflict zones; how to set up a system of accountability of PMCs; whether or not to look at and try PMCs for previously reported crimes; how to address the state-PMC relationship; and how to monitor PMC activities in conflict zones.

Topic B: To be announced

Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ)

Topic A: Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering as Funding for Terrorism

Money laundering is a formidable crime that affects the economy as a whole, impeding the social, economic, political, and cultural development of societies worldwide. Over the last decades, globalization has been accompanied by the growth of cross-border and national underground economies fueled by illegal businesses.  Criminal activities such as drug trafficking have generated immense profits that boost demand for money laundering. One immediate consequence of the widespread occurrence of these criminal activities is the availability of financing for terrorist activities.

Indeed, drug trafficking has provided funding for insurgency and those who use terrorist violence in various regions throughout the world, including in transit regions. Militant/terrorist groups that use laundered drug money as one of their sources of funding range from leftist guerrilla movements to rightwing extremists and from secular nationalist groups to Islamist organizations such as Hezbollah.

Although the link between terrorism and other related crimes, such as drug trafficking and money laundering, is evident and has been recognized by the United Nations Security Council, a more thorough understanding is needed in order to develop solid strategies to prevent and disrupt these crimes. The ability to prevent and detect money-laundering, for example, would be a highly effective means of identifying criminals and terrorists and the underlying activity from which money is derived.

It is important to understand that illicit drug traders, money launderers and terrorists are not some mysterious entity. Rather they are usually groups and networks that operate in ways that can be understood, identified, tracked and ultimately disrupted. Better transparency and financial integrity in national financial systems, enhanced oversight, and stronger cross border cooperation are necessary to achieve this. Terrorism and its financing are affecting both national and international economies. It is therefore critically important to have in place strong antimony laundering/combating the financing of terrorism frameworks.

The committee will focus on ways to crack down terror financing networks, exploring the link between drug trafficking and money laundering mafias and terrorist groups. The aim will be to integrate international efforts to build up more effective and efficient networks in order to defeat the illegitimate networks that perpetuate widespread destruction throughout the world.

Topic B: Global Initiative to Combat Cybercrime

In the globalised world of today, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are omnipresent and have created new opportunities for active development of economy, politics, country, society and social consciousness. The economies and defense of innumerable countries depend increasingly on normal operation of global computer networks. However, the enhancement of technologies has also led to the introduction of a new menace to society: cybercrime.

Cybercrime refers to any illegal behavior committed through a computer system or network. The term includes a wide variety of crime, from fraud, identity theft, hacking, data espionage, child pornography and internet vandalism, to extremely drastic offenses such as cyber terrorism, cyber warfare and cyber laundering.

The financial damage caused by cybercrime is colossal. By some estimates, revenues from cybercrime exceeded USD 100 billion in 2007, outstripping the revenue from illegal trade in drugs. Given the increasing military and economic dependence of the global community on ICTs, enhancing cyber security and protecting critical information infrastructures are essential to each nation’s security and economic well-being.

Finding response strategies and solutions to the exponentially growing threat of cybercrime is a major challenge for both developed and developing countries. Attacks on critical infrastructure, including telecommunications networks, may result in significant real-world damage, implicating cyber-terrorism and national security issues.

The need for international cooperation in cyber security is evident, due to the ‘borderless’ nature of cyberspace itself. Offenders can be located in one country and commit a crime using a computer in another country. This enables malicious individuals and groups to exploit “loopholes of jurisdiction”, making investigation and law enforcement difficult. The legal, technical and institutional challenges posed by the issue of cyber security are far-reaching and global, and can only be addressed through a comprehensive strategy that takes into account the role of different stakeholders and existing initiatives, within a framework of international cooperation.

The purpose of this committee would be: to consider the threat cybercrime poses to the global community; to promote the development of comprehensive frameworks to combat cybercrime and promote cyber security, and; to assist law enforcement authorities to respond to the challenges raised by advances in technology.

Dealing with emerging risks like cyber crime will require vision, pragmatism and the collaboration of the members of this committee. Delegates should focus on the transnational issues related to cybercrime, the steps member states can take, and the enforcements of international regulations which can prevent such crime.

World Bank

Topic A: Debt Relief

Debt Relief was bought onto the World Bank agenda in the late 1990’s and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative was launched to provide systematic debt relief for the poorest countries, whilst trying to ensure the money would be spent on poverty reduction. The HIPC program has been subject to conditionalities similar to those often attached to IMF and World Bank loans, requiring structural adjustment reforms, sometimes including the privatization of public utilities, including water and electricity. To qualify for irrevocable debt relief, countries must also maintain macroeconomic stability and implement a Poverty Reduction Strategy satisfactorily for at least one year. The Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), agreed upon in July 2005, is an extension of HIPC. It offers 100% cancellation of multilateral debts owed by HIPC countries to the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank.

However, there are several arguments against the debt relief initiatives. Opponents of debt relief argue that it is a blank cheque to governments, and fear savings will not reach the poor in countries plagued by corruption. Others argue that countries will go out and contract further debts, under the belief that these debts will also be forgiven in some future date. They use the money to enhance the wealth and spending ability of the rich, many of whom will spend or invest this money in the rich countries, thus not even creating a trickle-down effect. They argue that the money would be far better spent in specific aid projects which actually help the poor. They further argue that it would be unfair to third-world countries that managed their credit successfully, or don’t go into debt in the first place, that is, it actively encourages third world governments to overspend in order to receive debt relief in the future. Others argue against the conditionalities attached to debt relief. These conditions of structural adjustment have a history of widening the gap between the rich and the poor, as well as increasing economic dependence on the global North. Further arguments assert that the principal obstacle to investment and growth in the world’s poorest countries is a lack of basic economic institutions that provide the foundation for profitable economic activity. If the goal is to help poor countries build the institutions that best suit their development needs, then the energy and resources currently devoted to the HIPC initiative could be more effectively employed as direct foreign aid.

In light of such arguments, this committee will be focusing on agreeing upon conditions and safeguards, which will ensure the most effective use of funds. Other issues which will be open to debate include the status of countries being considered for the above initiatives and whether the heavily-indebted (but not so poor) Less Developed Countries, such as Pakistan and Turkey, should be considered for such initiatives or not. If so, then what should be the conditions attached and who will be benefiting from them?

Topic B: Anti Corruption

In lieu of the latest goal of the World Bank, that is, eradication of poverty, tackling corruption has become one of the foremost items on the committee’s agenda. It is believed that corruption is amongst the greatest obstacles to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the rule of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends. The harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poor, who are hardest hit by economic decline, are most reliant on the provision of public services, and are least capable of paying the extra costs associated with bribery, fraud, and the misappropriation of economic privileges. Corruption sabotages policies and programs that aim to reduce poverty, so attacking corruption is critical to the achievement of the Bank’s overarching mission of poverty reduction. It is believed that an effective anti corruption strategy builds on five key elements:

1. Increasing Political Accountability
2. Strengthening Civil Society Participation
3. Creating a Competitive Private Sector
4. Institutional Restraints on Power
5. Improving Public Sector Management

To reduce the corrosive impact of corruption in a sustainable way, it is important to go beyond the symptoms to tackle the causes of corruption. This committee will delve deep into these root causes and formulate effective anti corruption programs and governance initiatives which can then be implemented in member countries, especially in those whose administrative infrastructure and economy has been crippled by this heretofore unassailable menace.

Topic C: To be announced

Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)

Topic A: Sustainable Agricultural Trade and Development

Agriculture is an economic sector of primary importance in environment and development terms. For developing countries it encompasses a major proportion of their GDP. Therefore this committee shall seek to find ways to provide technical and financial assistance to sustainable development programs; advance agricultural research, increase public sector interest in sustainable agriculture and increase market access and exploration of new markets for value added agricultural products in the developed countries for producers in developing countries through removal of direct and indirect trade barriers such as high tariffs and subsidy policies. This would not only lead to enhanced food security and production through specialization but also a decline in potentially environmentally dangerous production methods employed by large farms in developed countries with high capital inputs. A balance between increased trade, specialization and diversification within economies would not only be challenging to perceive but also to achieve through diplomacy.

Topic B: To be announced

ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)

Topic A: Energy Security

Energy and its availability cannot be taken for granted even in the best of times. Energy security has changed dramatically since the great oil supply disruptions of the 1970s and is capturing headlines worldwide. After nearly two decades of comfortable supply margins, the global energy system is now stretched to the breaking point. The recent Russian-Ukrainian natural gas dispute and oil disruptions elsewhere highlight the importance of the issue on the geopolitical agenda.

The renewed focus on energy security is driven in part by an exceedingly tight oil market and by high oil prices, which have doubled over the past three years. But it is also fueled by the threat of terrorism, instability in some exporting nations, a nationalist backlash, fears of a scramble for supplies, geopolitical rivalries, and countries’ fundamental need for energy to power their economic growth. In the background — but not too far back — is renewed anxiety over whether there will be sufficient resources to meet the world’s energy requirements in the decades ahead.

Concerns over energy security are not limited to oil. Power blackouts on both the East and West Coasts of the United States, in Europe, and in Russia, as well as chronic shortages of electric power in China, India, and other developing countries; have raised worries about the reliability of electricity supply systems. When it comes to natural gas, rising demand and constrained supplies mean that North America can no longer be self-reliant, and so the United States is joining the new global market in natural gas that will link countries, continents, and prices together in an unprecedented way.

Regional and social turmoil still unsettles key producing areas. However, global terrorism threatens the entire supply system. Iraq’s production is more constrained than many anticipated before the Iraq War and it remains vulnerable to sabotage and terrorism. There is growing concern that rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program could lead to a new oil disruption.

The traditional energy security elements – supply sources, demand centers, geopolitics and market structures – have been joined by additional considerations. These include the inter-connectedness of world economies and energy infrastructure systems, climate change concerns, technological innovation and increased pressure from a broader array of stakeholders.

However, the next crisis no doubt will have different causes. The changes in supply sources, demand centers, geopolitics and market structures with the addition of supply chain integration, new technologies, public scrutiny and climate change will certainly require fresh solutions. The roles of China, India and Russia will weigh on both the supply and demand elements.

Topic B: Disaster Relief Management

Various disasters like earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions, fires, flood and cyclones are natural hazards that kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of habitat and property each year. The rapid growth of the world’s population and its increased concentration often in hazardous environment has escalated both the frequency and severity of natural disasters. With the tropical climate and unstable land forms, coupled with deforestation, unplanned growth proliferation non-engineered constructions which make the disaster-prone areas mere vulnerable, tardy communication, poor or no budgetary allocation for disaster prevention, developing countries suffer more or less chronically by natural disasters. Asia tops the list of casualties due to natural disaster.

Among various natural hazards, earthquakes, landslides, floods and cyclones are the major disasters adversely affecting very large areas and population in the Indian sub-continent. These natural disasters are of (i) geophysical origin such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides and (ii) climatic origin such as drought, flood, cyclone, locust, forest fire. Though it may not be feasible to control nature and to stop the development of natural phenomena but the efforts could be made to avoid disasters and alleviate their effects on human lives, infrastructure and property. Rising frequency, amplitude and number of natural disasters and attendant problem coupled with loss of human lives prompted the General Assembly of the United Nations to proclaim 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) through a resolution 44/236 of December 22, 1989 to focus on all issues related to natural disaster reduction. In spite of IDNDR, there had been a string of major disaster throughout the decade. Nevertheless, by establishing the rich disaster management related traditions and by spreading public awareness the IDNDR provided required stimulus for disaster reduction.

It is almost impossible to prevent the occurrence of natural disasters and their damages. However, it is possible to reduce the impact of disasters by adopting suitable disaster mitigation strategies. The disaster mitigation works mainly address the following: (i) minimize the potential risks by developing disaster early warning strategies, (ii) prepare and implement developmental plans to provide resilience to such disasters, (iii) mobilize resources including communication and tele-medicinal services and (iv) to help in rehabilitation and post-disaster reduction. Disaster management on the other hand involves: (i) pre-disaster planning, preparedness, monitoring including relief management capability, (ii) prediction and early warning, (iii) damage assessment and relief management. Disaster reduction is a systematic work which involves with different regions, different professions and different scientific fields, and has become an important measure for human, society and nature sustainable development. One of the critical problems in disaster relief management is the lack of reliable data on basic needs on the ground after a major natural disaster. Disaster relief efforts must overcome serious logistical problems due to poor communication and unreliable information.

Security Council (SC)

Topic A: The Crisis in Yemen

Yemen, located at the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, is one of the Least Developed Countries with an ineffective central government, religious and social tensions, and armed tribal factions in outlying areas. A number of challenges currently plague this country, and key amongst these is the growing threat of terrorism in the region. Since September 11, Yemen pledged to assist the US government in its War on Terror. However, despite its best efforts, it is widely believed that terrorists units are still alive in Yemen and corporations based in Yemen are thought to have funded the Bin Laden terrorist network. Incidents such as the bombing of the navy destroyer U.S.S. Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in October 2000 have sparked international concern, and major powers have committed to supporting Yemen in its fight against Al-Qaeda by strengthening its counter-terrorism capabilities. Recent events involving terrorist activities in Yemen have reignited international interest, and on January 19th 2010, the UNSC sanctions committee added Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing and two of its leaders to a U.N. blacklist, aiming at weaken these factions. On 27th January 2010, an international high-level meeting in London took place under the auspicious of the UN, regarding the increasingly deplorable security situation in Yemen. Yemen’s problems, however, are multiple and so inextricably linked that a simple crackdown on Al-Qaeda affiliates will not be a solution to the country’s problems.

Since 2004, government forces in Yemen have been engaged in fierce fighting with members of the Shiite Al-Houthi rebel group in the northwest, displacing a total of 250,000 people. In 2009, the conflict spilled over into the neighboring southern region of Saudi Arabia, which reacted by increasing its forces along the boarder and artillery shelling. The conflict is increasingly becoming a danger to regional stability as various countries are said to be indirectly involved. While Iran is suspected to promote the rebel groups, the United States administration stated to increase its military assistance for the Yemenite government to $140 million in 2010. Beside an increasing intervention of foreign powers, Yemen faces other significant challenges, including a possible Shiite revolt in the north, secessionist unrest in the south, water shortages, poverty and growing militancy.

The United Nation’s Humanitarian Response Plan for 2010 calls for the provision of $177 million to Yemen for assistance, but only 1% percent has been arranged for so far. The significant security, economic and humanitarian problems faced by Yemen are not just a threat to its internal stability, but a severe concern for the international community. Yemen might become a new terrorist haven, slide into a vast civil war, break apart, and, thus, destabilize the entire region. Because of its proximity to Somalia, a second failed state at the Bab el-Mandab street, which connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, will pose a serious threat to Western oil supply and international trade. It is pertinent that the global community, as represented by the Security Council, recognizes the magnitude of the crisis in Yemen and develops a more holistic approach to the problem, which incorporates improving the economy, battling poverty, and fighting terrorism to promote internal and external stability for Yemen under one interlinked framework.

Topic B: Afthermath of the Gaza War and Unresolved Conflicts between Israel and Palestine

A climate of mistrust has existed between Israel and Palestinians since half a century, and is prevalent even today due to conflicts over settlement expansion, forced evictions, military incursions, rocket fire and the closure of border crossings between the two states. Amongst these key unresolved crisis, the Gaza War of 2008-2009 and the events that followed take a central position. About a year ago, Israel fought for three weeks in Gaza to stop the shooting of thousands of rockets from there into its southern communities. About 1,400 people were killed and 4,000 homes were destroyed in this war. The UNSC Resolution 1860 aimed to resolve this conflict by calling for “an immediate ceasefire in Gaza leading to a full Israeli withdrawal, unimpeded provision through Gaza of food, fuel and medical treatment, and intensified international arrangements to prevent arms and ammunition smuggling”.

The conflict however did not end then and there. Not only was this resolution largely unsuccessful, a multitude of new problems arose with the publishing of the Goldstone Report. Under the UNHRC, a fact-finding mission investigated the atrocities committed during the Gaza War, and in the report that followed, accused mainly Israel, but also Hamas, which controls Gaza, of possible war crimes during the three-week war. Israel was also accused of deliberate attacks against the civilian population of Gaza, and of willful destruction of civilian infrastructure, a violation of international law. Furthermore, the report called for “appropriate investigations that are independent and in conformity with international standards” into what it called “serious violations” of international law. Israel quite adamantly rejected the Goldstone report on the grounds of it being biased, and sent a letter to the UN Secretary General defending the credibility of its own internal military investigation into the Israeli Army’s conduct during this war. Needless to say, Israel’s reaction was not taken in good spirit by the international community, which widely supports the Goldstone Report.

Beside the clash in Gaza, other unresolved conflicts between Israel and Palestine are also reinvigorating, particularly border conflicts and creation of new settlements by Israel. In the West Bank the Israeli security barrier, which cuts through the lands of the village of Nilin is at the center of an Israeli arrest campaign. While the existence of this barrier itself is a source of conflict between the two states, the arresting activities have aggravated the crisis. Furthermore, while Israel has ceased the creation of new settlements in the West Bank under the ‘freeze’ agreement, it refuses to do the same in East Jerusalem and several Palestinian families have been evicted. The Quartet (U.S., EU, Russia and the UN) has criticized Israeli building plans for East Jerusalem, but insists that Palestine should not back out of talks as a result of this construction. Several issues still plague the region of Israel and Palestine. While the Road Map for Peace has been chalked out, the real test is the implementation of this framework. While atrocities have been conducted by both Israel and Palestine during the Gaza War and otherwise, the only way to move forward is to comply with UN resolutions and reports for this region. Especially with the Obama government completely backing a two-state solution and focusing interest on the region again, it becomes pertinent to resolve this conflict before it escalates into another war.