Model UN reflection

Having never done anything like the model UN simulation before, I thought it was particularly interesting. Especially as prior to it, I knew absolutely nothing about the country of Kuwait. I also feel that my knowledge about the relations of the Middle East has increased substantially. I mostly enjoyed the parts of the simulation where we had a major crisis to solve because it was fun to be able to exercise so much pretend power and also to have your voice heard on potentially real life situations. It was also a good way to hear about everyone else’s area of interest in Kuwait (for example, the economy, defense or education). It was fun to be able to experience what goes into the decision making process, and how many things come into play when making decisions that effect an entire nation of people, or even multiple countries.

I think I was sufficiently prepared; I knew lots of details about my ministry and knew basic facts and foreign policy about Kuwait. However, I could have improved my knowledge by reading everyone else’s blog entries about Kuwait as to have a slightly more rounded perception of the country.

I was most proud of how our group handled our crises very realistically on the first day of the simulation. We were not too generous to the people or too lenient on the workers. We were firm, but not uncooperative. I think we were very good at acting as Kuwait might really have acted, taking the views of our population into consideration with the reorganization of the government and with the workers crisis, and not just giving into our power hungry, foreign policy minded inner desires to dominate the Middle East.

Also, I thought our group was very good at not allowing just one person to dominate all decision making. Almost everyone spoke out on the first day and most people got to talk about their particular ministry and were useful in decision making not only if it applied to their ministry, but everything in general. Many people voiced opinions and showed knowledge in areas that they didn’t focus on.

Our group also made sure to look at news releases not concerning our own country, because you never know when something could come along that could mean great profit for our nation. For example, the Iranian post about oil found off the coast of their country which allowed us to join forces with Iraq and the USA was a very handy one. It would not have been good if we had ignored that piece of information especially as Kuwait’s rich economy almost runs singlehandedly on oil supply. Also we gave out aid on a few occasions, which was my area of expertise, when news releases came out about the spread of disease or of famine in Iraq. This helped to keep ourselves alive in the simulation and to ensure our survival in the core part of the events.

I think the simulation could have gone much better if the organizers had more people on staff because then news could have been approved and posted faster and therefore there would be more things we might be able to react/respond to. On the second day we weren’t given any crises therefore we were forced to try to play off of other country’s situations in order to get ourselves back into the center of the simulation. Towards the end, in a desperate plea for recognition, we planned a celebratory boat party where we planned to assassinate the prime minister of China. Overall the people in charge could definitely have been more organized, or had some potential crises ready to give out in case of a countries lack of things to deal with, particularly countries like Kuwait who are not an especially large player in the international system.