Weeks Where Decades Happen: Lessons from a Historical Committee at ASU’s 2023 Model UN Summit (SunMUN 2023)
ASU’s 14th annual SunMUN Model United Nations conference concluded on November 18th, 2023. With a record turnout of over 250 delegates from high schools across the Valley, and guest speaking appearances from the likes of Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, this conference was a milestone in ASU Model UN history.
What made the conference such a success? Aside from the record attendance, it was the introduction of our brand new Special Committees that made this conference one to remember. As a head chair with ASU Model United Nations, I had the privilege of designing and leading an experimental Historical Committee set amidst the turmoil of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
In this retrospective, I’ll recount my experience designing this unique committee, as well as share the lessons I learned about the power of simulation to make history immersive, educational, and memorable.
What is Model United Nations?
Before we dive in, let’s take a step back. What is Model United Nations?
Model United Nations, often shortened to Model UN or simply MUN, is a style of educational simulation that teaches students about the world of diplomacy and international relations. It has its origins at the University level in the time of the League of Nations: it was introduced in US high schools in the 1950s, and is now practised around the world. In a classic Model UN committee, students navigate complex global issues as delegates in various United Nations committees, such as the General Assembly and the Security Council.
Prior to convening, MUN delegates first showcase their research skills by drafting a Position Paper for their nation. In committee, delegates exhibit their quick thinking and diplomatic composure as they argue, negotiate and compromise to pass a joint Resolution, which represents their particular country’s interests as fully as possible. In all, Model UN challenges participants on a multitude of levels, honing writing, speaking, and negotiation skills essential for tomorrow’s leaders.
In recent years, Model UN has expanded to include a variety of Special Committees beyond the standard UN paradigm. Historical committees, such as the one I chaired, transport delegates to the past to represent historical figures grappling with pivotal moments in history. Many Special Committees make use of an unconventional format known as Crisis. In Crisis-style committees, every decision carries immediate consequences as delegates navigate tumultuous historical events in real time.
As a longtime lover of the Special Committee experience, I jumped at the chance to chair a Historical Committee at ASU SunMUN 2023. Join me as I unpack my process of designing and facilitating a simulation that was immersive, challenging, and rewarding.
Designing a Special Committee: Selecting a Setting and Topic
The most quintessential, yet overlooked, part of running a Special Committee is designing the committee itself. It all starts with choosing the right setting and topic—a task that’s more nuanced than it seems.
In my experience, not every historical event makes for an engaging academic simulation. It’s often a delicate balance to find a setting that is both interesting and educationally valuable.
So, what factors go into choosing a Special Committee setting? Here’s what I like to keep in mind:
Specificity. A Special Committee should be limited in scope and topic. For instance, instead of “The Cold War” (1945-1991) as a topic, it would be better to use “The Cuban Missile Crisis” (October 16-29, 1962). A specific topic gives the committee direction, and encourages deeper research.
This also includes setting a clear start date to anchor the committee in history. Delegates shouldn’t be using information from the “future.”
However, keep in mind that the topic should not be too specific, or it leaves the delegates with little flexibility. Historical events where most of the committee’s actions would be spent on minutiae—redrawing borders, moving troops, etc—often get boring quickly. For example, “The Eastern Front of WW2” leaves little flexibility for committee decisions other than war actions, while “The Prague Spring” (January-August 1968) has a focal point, but room to branch off and attack the problem in unique ways.
Balance and breadth of viewpoints. Successful Special Committees are set amidst complex political contexts. To reflect this, the committee should include a colorful sampling of figures who represent the most significant currents of political thought during this time period.
It is important to balance this with historical accuracy. Delegates will naturally try to form blocs with those who share similar policy priorities. Avoid giving one bloc such overwhelming representation that they drown out the other voices, but if a certain bloc held most of the political influence during this time period, it’s natural that they should have a numbers advantage. This helps avoid a radical faction dominating the committee and divorcing too radically from history.
For example, consider a committee about “The American Revolutionary Period.” Such a committee would balance the biggest political perspectives of the time, such as northern vs southern, commercialism vs agrarianism, and centralism vs confederalism. This sets the stage for a healthy debate. By contrast, a topic featuring the American government in “The Korean War” may not be as interesting, since the American government was largely united in its stance on the conflict.
Uniqueness. This point is subjective, but I find that the best committee topics are ones that explore lesser-known events that challenge delegates’ research skills. Well-trodden topics such as “The American Civil War” or “World War II” may have broad appeal, but a less discussed topic such as “The Peace of Westphalia” will likely result in a more challenging and memorable experience.
Format Appropriateness. Not all topics fit neatly into every committee format. Consider whether your topic is best suited for a Non-Crisis or Crisis committee.
In my experience, closed-door meetings or summits like “The Congress of Vienna” or “The Paris Peace Conference” lend themselves best to a Non-Crisis format. As conventions where representatives came together to hammer out deliverable documents, it transitions perfectly to a MUN setting where the goal is to pass a resolution.
By contrast, broader events often work best as Crisis Committees. For instance, “The Boxer Rebellion” or “The Prague Spring” are events where many problems can crop up during the course of the committee and be dealt with in turn. The committee can represent an adaptable governing body such as the Qing Court or the U.S.S.R. Politburo without being expected to produce a single deliverable law or treaty.
Our Special Committee: The 1917 First All-Russian Congress of Soviets
After careful consideration and collaboration with my peers, we settled on "The First All-Russian Congress of Soviets" as our committee topic. This pivotal moment in Russian history, often overlooked in high school curricula, offered a perfect blend of political complexity and educational value.
The brief period between the Russian revolutions of March and November 1917 are usually glossed over in high school history curricula in favor of skipping straight to early Soviet history. This gives many students the impression that the outcome of the Russian Revolution and Bolshevik victory in the Civil War was somehow a foregone conclusion, when in reality it was anything but. As the apocryphal quote from Vladimir Lenin goes, “there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” The six months of the inter-revolutionary period was one such tumultuous time, where anything was possible. Russia had gone in an instant from unbroken centuries of tsarist rule to a clean slate, and everyone in the ideologically diverse Russian political landscape had their own vision for how the future should look.
As a Non-Crisis committee, I decided to choose a particular historical meeting to encapsulate the turbulent political dynamic of the period. The First All-Russian Congress of Soviets was a perfect choice—as the first ever event to unite workers’ councils from across all of Russia, the First Congress of Soviets was a battleground for bitter ideological struggles between the moderate Mensheviks and SRs, and the radical Bolsheviks. There was also belief in the potential of the Congress to assert itself as the new de facto government of Russia, giving delegates boundless flexibility.
After extensive research, I crafted a research brief to prepare delegates for the committee, which can be read here:SunMUN 2023 Historical Committee Short Research Guide.
The First Congress of Soviets promised a unique and intriguing setting for a historical simulation, and I was confident that it would prove a memorable experience for delegates. However, there was still much work to be done in refining the committee’s details before I was ready to host delegates. The next part of this journey is detailed in a follow-up article here on the Melikian Center Blog.
Written by: Prad Velagapudi