From annihilating countries with nukes and attempting to resolve global warming to preserving cultural heritage and advancing women’s rights, the past weekend was fueled with heated debate on today’s pressing issues as hundreds of students from 16 different schools attended Salesianum’s 33rd annual Delaware Model United Nations Conference (DELMUN XXXIII).

The school-hosted conference has a rich history extending back to the 80’s, and many alumni of that Salesianum era attended the conference to serve as chairs to moderate debate. There were nine UN groups represented at the conference, among which were:

Historical Crisis Committee

In this committee, which was set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, approximately  20 delegates acted as political leaders of parties that had immense influence on war outcomes. By strategically attaining foreign aid and through the skillful deployment of troops, the delegates avoided the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Despite this success on the battlefield, the divided political climate in Spain led to the decentralization of rule and economic hardship.

Thomas King, a Salesian brother who saw first-hand the developments of the committee, provided commentary on these outcomes:

“Throughout the day, it was really interesting to see the historical crisis develop. The delegates’ superb public speaking skills, clever implementation of resources, and cunning usage of their own personal powers … represents a generation [that] is developing the skills [needed] to change the world.”

—Thomas King, Secretary-General, Crisis Director

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO is the UN body that is tasked with enhancing human rights by resolving a myriad of social issues. The delegates of this organization were assigned the challenge of increasing Open Access to scholarly literature (i.e. academic journals charge premiums, and this reduces global access to education). In this organization, delegates from South Korea, the Central African Republic, and Saudi Arabia teamed up to pass a resolution to enhance global education in an economically-beneficial way for the international community.

This resolution approached the issue by focusing on the sources of educational inequality, which the group identified to be global economic inequality. From there, these delegates outlined a plan to address the economic hardship exhibited by many states.

The resolution entailed a plan for states to improve their education systems by pursuing loan-based funding measures as opposed to foreign direct investments (FDI). The bloc of countries that headed this resolution rationalized that FDIs perpetuate the dependency of countries on each other for technological and monetary support.
Additionally, the resolution called for an expansion to the scope of services provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Specifically, there was a clause to make the IMF provide a loan advisory service to countries receiving and lending money in order to oversee investments.

Crisis Committee

DELMUN’s Crisis Committee was set in Britain during October 1940 when Nazi Germany was making advancements towards mainland Britain. The ten delegates of this scenario were members of the British War Cabinet, which was tasked with strategically determining warfare decisions during this period of constant bombing runs by German forces.

Each delegate had the ability to utilize unique portfolio powers, such as the ability to control state finances or manage the military. Initially, the debate was slow-paced and delegates were focusing on how to address German advances, but it was not long before news broke out that German advances compromised the British grasp on their military, and the delegates consequently had exactly ten minutes to determine whether they would preserve their air force or naval bases. Considering the fact that the British navy was already exceptionally larger than the German navy, the cabinet decided to close the naval base.

Then the unthinkable happened when a delegate, Kingsley Wood, used his portfolio powers to mismanage funds and finance an assasination attempt against another delegate. The attacked delegate survived, and although the cabinet was led to believe that Wood may have not financed the attack, he was voted out of the cabinet for the duration of the investigation.

Another delegate, Anthony Eden, who oversaw international affairs and MI6 (British Secret Service), was fed up with the unproductive nature of the cabinet following the voting out of Kingsley, arguing that this distracted the cabinet from the real threat of German advancements. In response to this, he tried leaving the cabinet but was convinced to stay.

Through the course of debate, a few directives were voted into effect by the cabinet. In brief, they called for the mobilization of the British Home Fleet into the English Channel to patrol activities. Thousands of ground troops were additionally stationed along the beaches of the Channel, and a “Victory Tax” was passed in order to fund other war pursuits. The British also bombed their beaches through spitfire raids in order to defend against German forces.

Guest Speaker: Honorable Curt Weldon

Salesianum was honored to host former Congressman of 20 years, Curt Weldon. He was the Vice President of the Homeland Security Committee and the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives, and he has been a prominent figure in international relations, having visited North Korea, Russia, China, and other global states in efforts of resolving conflict.

While at the conference, he gave a brilliant and inspiring speech that called our generation to lie down border-based differences in order to acknowledge a person for their humanity as opposed to the country of their residence. Too often are individuals judging each other based on cultural differences or governmental differences. He challenged this generation to embrace fellow man in an effort towards world peace, and this aura followed students throughout the day and evoked self-reflection in between debate.

Considering this and the smooth flow of debate throughout the day, DELMUN XXXIII was a great success.