MSUMUN XVI
March 18th - March 20th
DISEC
Chair: Jason Kim
Dylan Colby & Pranit Vensarkar
Michigan State University Model United Nations XVI
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to MSUMUN XVI! My name is Jason Kim and I will be chairing the Disarmament
and International Security Committee (DISEC) this year. This is my second year at MSU and
my second year with MSUMUN. I am currently studying mechanical engineering at
Michigan State University. I have been participating in MUN since my sophomore year in
high school and I have always been interested topics related to international security and
the history behind it.
This year we will be having two very experienced assistant chairs during the conference.
Dylan Colby is a freshman at MSU in the James Madison College. In high school, he has
participated in Model United Nations Conferences for four years attending conferences in
three countries, including the JOMUN conference in South Africa, the IASAS conference in
Indonesia, and the ISH conference in Japan.
Pranit Vengsarkar is a junior at MSU doing a double major in Astrophysics and Economics.
He participated in the MUN as delegates for two years while attending the THIMUN
Singapore and THIMUN at The Hague.
As a delegate of DISEC at MSUMUN XVI, you will be expected to think critically about three
issues we will be discussing in the committee. This year you will have unique opportunity
to discuss the demilitarization and prevention of arms race in outer space, handling of
international terrorism, and national border disputes amongst nations. Disarmament and
international security is an important issue as the outcomes will affect not only our
committee but other committee as well. This background guide will help you get an
introductory knowledge about the topics at hand. However further individual research and
your diplomacy is highly recommended if you want to succeed in committee.
If you have any questions or concerns feel free to send an email to [email protected]. I
wish you the best of luck and I will see you all at MSUMUN XVI!
Sincerely,
Jason Kim
DISEC
Chair
[email protected]
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Topic 1: Demilitarization and Prevention of Arms
Race in Outer Space (PAROS)
Introduction
The space is an area of infinite space and possibilities. It has always gripped the
curiosity of mankind, whether it maybe to explore its limitless boundaries or to understand
its mysteries and define the beginning of the world as we know it. For the most part of the
20th century most countries around the world have been obsessed with being the first into
space in a race known during the cold war as the ‘space race’. In the initial stages of this
‘space race’ the USA and the USSR were the main competitors and rivals who were trying to
be the first into space but were yet unaware of the benefits and the advantages that space
especially around the earth had to offer. Today mankind has benefitted greatly from space
in general. From the placement of satellites and space stations for navigational and
technological use such as Global Positioning System (GPS), the advancement in space
technology has also involved the introduction of weapons in space and this arms race in
space will eventually threaten world peace. The demilitarization of space and the
Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) treaty is a topic that is being currently
debated within the disarmament and security committee within the UN.
History
The cold war was a period of time of heightened tensions between USA and USSR
and their respective proxies. This was a period where each nation tried to best the other in
intelligence, military and nuclear wealth and also by competing in the space race. While the
Russians were the first to get a cosmonaut into space and were able to launch the first
artificial satellite, the Americans managed to get a man on the moon. This rivalry then
escalated where each country decided to make and place reconnaissance satellites into
space for the intention of spying and gathering information from the other country over the
Iron Curtain. Subsequently each country then invented anti-satellite weapons to blind or
destroy the enemy satellites. These superpowers then developed ICBM’s or
Intercontinental ballistic missiles which would pass through sub orbital space and were
extremely accurate to hit the targeted country due to the help of the aforementioned
military satellites. This escalation was reaching dangerous levels between the two
countries where at one point during the 1950’s the United States Air Force was planning to
drop an atomic bomb on the moon to display its superiority during the cold war. As the
power of the superpower status of USSR declined towards the end of the cold war, the
United States started monopolizing its status as the leader in the space technology. Its
initial programs started with the Nike-Zeus programs and the Sentinel Programs which
with the help of the military satellites would be able to counter ICBM’s in the air by firing
nuclear warheads towards them. During the Reagan administration in 1983, the Strategic
Defense Initiative was proposed which was a space based system which would strategically
counter threats on the United States by using nuclear missiles. In 1985 the United States
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Space Command was created to govern the outer space with the United States Armed
Forces. In the meanwhile the USSR tried to gain space supremacy by creating the Fractional
Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS) and the Polyus orbital weapons system which would
us ICBM’s which would after entering orbit would de-orbit and detonate when close to the
target.
After the end of the cold war, the monopoly of the two countries ended and the rise
of space programs in China, Japan and India and also the European Union collectively
representing Europe.
Case Study
The Russians had to suspend the use of the FOBS and the Polyus weapons system in
the January of 1983 due to the Salt II treaty which prohibited the use of any FOBS missile
by either party and also prevented the placing into orbit, nuclear weapons or any kind of
weapon of mass destruction. There are currently 10 countries with potential military
satellites doing reconnaissance including the USA, Russia, Germany, France, United
Kingdom, India, China, Japan, Israel, and Italy. Earlier during the 20th century the United
Nations General Assembly established a Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in
Resolution 1472 (XIV) to ensure international cooperation in the peaceful areas of outer
space. The Outer Space Treaty decided by the General Assembly in 1969 included a list of
several principles that needed to be followed internationally for peace regarding to outer
space. In 2006 the Space Preservation Treaty was proposed which was voted against by the
United States and an abstention by Israel.
The Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) Treaty was first submitted as a draft
by Russia in 2008 stating that State Parties would commit to refrain from placing objects
carrying any type of weapon into orbit, installing weapons on celestial bodies, and
threatening to use force against objects in outer space. Russia, China, and Pakistan each
stated that PAROS is their delegation’s priority. Each year in the First Committee and then
again in the General Assembly as a whole, a resolution on the prevention of an arms race in
outer space (PAROS) is introduced and adopted by an overwhelming majority of UN
member states. In fact, every country in the world votes in favor of negotiating a treaty on
PAROS—except for the US, Georgia, Israel and Ukraine, which abstain.
Question to consider
1. What can be defined as space warfare and how can it be reduced and
prevented?
2. Is there a strict difference between militarization of space and the
weaponization of space and how can laws be passed to cover those two issues?
3. How can spy and other military communication satellites be used in space
warfare and what should be done to prevent an increase in military satellites?
4. How can countries without military satellites contribute to the PAROS treaty?
5. What sides will countries take in the development of the PAROS treaty?
6. Will block formations affect the debate on PAROS?
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References
1) William J. Broad (28 October 1986). "Star Wars Traced to Eisenhower Era".
New York Times.
2) Glonass. "Military space - Navigation - Glonass - Russian strategic nuclear
forces". Russianforces.org.
3) Sak, Anatoly (November 20, 2008). "Buran - the Soviet 'space shuttle'". BBC
News.
4) "Russia has the corner on guns in space - Technology & science - Space Human spaceflight | NBC News".
5) PBS Nova Program “Astrospies” , Broadcast February 12, 2008:
6) United Nations General Assembly Session 61 Verbotim Report 67.
A/61/PV.67 page 6.
7) DeFrieze, D. (2014). Defining and regulating the weaponization of space. The
International Relations and Security Network. Retrieved from
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/Digital-Library/Articles/Detail/?id=182863
8) Duncan, John 2006, Statement by H.E. Ambassador John Duncan, UK
Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Geneva, 8 June.
9) Mohanco, John 2006, Delegation of the United States to the Conference on
Disarmament, Geneva, 13 June.
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Topic 2: International Terrorism
Introduction
Until the latter part of the twentieth century, international terrorism had never truly
captivated and horrified the world. Today, terrorism is a common threat to many nations,
and events such as the 9/11 terror attacks where terrorists hijacked passenger planes and
crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, are meant to instill a sense of
fear into the public. Fear is the main goal of most international terrorists, to incite change
in an international policy through acts of violence, either against civilians or military
targets. There are many forms of terrorism, and there is a plethora of intended goals
international terrorists hope to achieve. Modern terrorism usually involves guerilla
warfare tactics. Terror groups are usually based in areas of unrest or where states have
little control over the region, but may occur anywhere and have agents located in many
nations. Due to the complexity of the origin, objectives, and methodology of terror groups
enacting and enforcing laws to prevent terrorism is difficult. Even the definition of
terrorism has been controversial, with various nations having their own definitions. The
United Nations definition of Terrorism is the following:
“Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a
group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance
unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial,
ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them.” As the rise of ISIS
and Boko Haram shows, the issue of international terrorism is ongoing, and is still being
discussed globally.
History
Terrorism has its roots leading all the way back to the first century AD against
collaborators of Roman rule in modern day Israel. Modern use of the term started during
the reign of terror during the French Revolution, when dissidents of the state where
beheaded in public to inspire fear in the enemies of the state. This type of state sponsored
terrorism eventually gave way to non-state sponsored terrorism in the 19th century. The
use of terror tactics during this time was mainly used by anarchists, but also was used in
the Irish fight for independence and nationalist movements in the Ottoman Empire. Non
state sponsored terrorism continued into the 20th century, in Nationalist movements in the
European empires, religious groups in Palestine, and others. It can be argued that the First
World War began due to an act of terrorism when the heir to Austro-Hungarian throne was
assassinated in Sarajevo. It was not until the latter half of the 20th century that we saw
terrorism evolve into its current form. Radical Islamic groups began to become associated
with terrorism, although other groups continued to use the tactic as well. Major attacks
include the Lockerbie plane bombing, the first bombing of the World Trade Center. Suicide
bombings also rose in prevalence during this time. In the 21st century terrorism reached a
new height of prevalence, with multiple major attacks, including the bombing of the USS
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Cole by al-Qaeda in 2000, the Madrid train bombing, the London bombing, the New Delhi
bombings, and of course the 9/11 bombings. The United States responded to 9/11 with
declaring a war on terrorism, fighting in multiple nations in the Middle East and Africa. In
an attempt to respond to the threat International terrorism poses, the United Nations has
passed multiple resolutions to try to combat terrorism, and has created the Security
Council Counter Terrorism Committee in order to better address this issue. Some
resolutions passed include resolution 1540, 49/60, and 1373.
Disarmament
Modern efforts to disarm international terrorism organizations have included
initiatives on a wide variety of areas. Many UN efforts have been focused on the freezing of
funds meant to finance terror. Once such resolution is 1273, which calls upon states to halt
any means of terror financing within their borders. Other methods include marking
explosives, to better trace them and detect them. This is a direct response to the plastic
explosives used in the Lockerbie bombing. Much of the UN’s efforts have been directed at
preventative measures, namely preventing terror groups from acquiring a weapon of mass
destruction. Nuclear weapons are a major concern, with multiple resolutions having been
passed that aim to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear material.
Questions to Consider
1. What methods can be employed to prevent the flow of small arms weapons to terror
groups?
2. How can nations cooperate to disarm terror groups that already possess weapons?
3. How can weapon flow to nations with terror groups residing within them be cut off
without infringing upon the nation's sovereignty?
4. What methods can be taken to prevent terror groups from gaining access to
Weapons of Mass destruction?
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_terrorism#The_Reign_of_Terror_.281793.E2.80.931
794.29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Terror
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/disarmament/index.shtml
http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/557/43/PDF/N0155743.pdf?OpenElement
http://terrorism.about.com/od/whatisterroris1/p/Terrorism.htm
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/49/60
http://www.un.org/en/terrorism/instruments.shtml
http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N04/328/43/PDF/N0432843.pdf?OpenElement
http://www.un.org/en/sc/ctc/
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/terrorism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_terrorism#Incidents_involving_nuclear_material
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Topic 3: National Border Disputes
Introduction
Border disputes, or territorial disputes, are a disagreement over the
possession/control over a land between two or more nations. Borders are usually formed
either by using geographical features such as rivers or mountains that prevent
communication or travel or using geometric borders created by using longitudes or
latitudes regardless of the geographic features present. Creation of national borders are
created by mutual agreement from the parties involved, one party imposing what the
border should be, a third party that impose a new border, inheritance from former states,
inheritance from former internal borders, or are never clearly defined. Disputes over
borders usually arise because of imprecise defining and recording of the border between
two nations and have significant meaning in the international society as it relates to the
fundamental rights of states, sovereignty and is important for international peace. The
trends with border disputes are more developed countries have little to no problems with
borders while developing countries do.
History
Conflicts over borders border usually have deeper meaning than increasing simply
increasing or decreasing territory. Border disputes in the past have been for control over
resources located in the area, asserting dominance in the region, regaining historical lands,
or etc. In countries outside of the US or Western Europe conflicts usually occur because the
border for these countries was imposed on to them such as Africa. There have been few
times in history where there were conflicts over religious grounds, the Crusades being a
prime example where two dominant religious groups fought over a city and the
surrounding piece of land that holds no strategic value. However it did show that whoever
had control over the area would be considered the more dominant group. Borders that are
drawn on a map are constantly changing with over 150 conflicts around the world, mostly
in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific regions. While most conflicts will be settled without
bloodshed there are some that can change the maps that we use today.
Case Study by Region
North America
North America has not had any recent conflicts over borders as the Canadian and
the US border is considered the longest non-militarized border between two countries in
the world and even though there are issues with illegal immigrants coming from Mexico to
the US, there have not been issues over the border line itself.
Central America is different to Canadian-US-Mexican borders where there are still
numerous conflicts over boundaries due to decolonization and the countries’ need for
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resources. Tensions have also been increasing due to illegal activities that occur in the
region as it is not restricted to a certain country but the region as a whole. It is important to
note that while there are numerous tensions over borders in countries, they are not serious
enough to cause a war.
South America
Similar to Central America, South America has been going through numerous
conflicts in the region. There have been rising conflicts in the border between Chile and
Bolivia where in the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific and the 1904 Treaty of Peace and
Friendship, Chile was granted Bolivian coastline which resulted in Bolivia loosing access to
the sea. Bolivia has never given up on its goal of regaining its access to the sea and on April
24, 2013, Bolivia brought the case to IJC.
In the borders between Venezuela and Columbia, conflicts between the countries
mostly stems from illegal activities that plague the region. Instead of cooperating together
to solve the issue, the countries take actions on their own which led to tensions between
the countries. While this particular conflict does not deal with the national border itself, it
is important to note that if conflict were to break out among the two countries, a change in
boundaries between the two countries can happen.
Europe
Western Europe is a region with little to no tensions between borders. Western
Europe's border changed very little with the end of WWII. Slight changes were made to the
German-French border as France’s borders were changed due to Germany's occupation
during WWII. Eastern Europe is different where there are still some border disputes among
the former Soviet Union countries. While the disputes haven’t been as violent as the other
regions, the annexation of Crimea by the Russians has shown that the region is still
unstable due to tensions from the past.
Africa
The modern borders of Africa have been formed mostly by the Europeans during
the colonization era. The borders have been created without the consideration of the
diverse ethnic groups in the region. After the Europeans left the continent majority of the
countries’ borders were formed from the borders from the colonization era. Ever since
then stability in the continent have been unstable with constant conflicts and illegal
activities across the borders. The African Union has been slow to solve the problems that
were handed to them by the Europeans.
Asia
Tensions between countries in Asia have been running high due to historical
conflicts as well as competition to increase military power. The border between North and
South Korea has never been formally decided since the end of Korean War. Jammu and
Kashmir area is the point of tension between India, Pakistan and even China to some
extent. In East China Sea, China and Japan have been disputing over a chain of energy rich
islands known as Senkaku Islands in Japan and Diaoyu Islands in China. While none of
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these conflicts may result in serious conflicts, it still raises concern about the stability in the
area.
Middle-East
A unique region that requires special attention, the area has had one of the longest
and the biggest border disputes. The State of Israel vs. the State of Palestine in Jerusalem is
unique because the source of conflict is different from other conflicts, which is religion. The
Jews and the Arabs have been in constant conflict when it came to this historic city fighting
to decide who the land belongs to. After the creation of Israel in 1948, Israel went to war
with its Arab neighbors which resulted in a ceasefire and more temporary borders being
established. With tensions running high on both sides, only time will tell whether or not
borders will change in the region.
In recent years a group calling them ISIL, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or
ISIS, known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a self-declared Islamic state that is not
recognized by any nation. Its goal is the foundation of an Islamic state in accordance to
Salafi Islam, which means military jihad. With the group entrenched in Middle East and
with provinces all the way to Asia, North Africa, and even Europe, the presence of ISIL is a
raises concern with the stability in the region as well as the safety of those who oppose
them.
Questions to Consider
1.
How can border disputes be resolved among the countries involved?
2.
How does a border dispute arise?
3.
What can the United Nations do to solve border disputes?
4.
What’s the reason behind border disputes?
5.
If borders were to be changed what will happen to the groups living in the area
where the borders were changed?
6.
How long will it take for the disputes to be settled?
7.
What kind of compromise must be reached in order for both sides of the conflicts is
satisfied?
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References
1.
2.
3.
http://www.americasquarterly.org/charticles/border-conflicts-in-the-americas/
http://listverse.com/2011/09/02/top-10-controversial-territorial-disputes/
http://www.lasc.umd.edu/InfoStudents/GVPT309P/Documents/Boundarydisputes
002.pdf
4.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140328-disputed-territoriesgeography-russia-crimea/
5. http://theconversation.com/africas-border-disputes-are-set-to-rise-but-there-are-waysto-stop-them-44264
6.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_dispute
7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_territorial_disputes
8.
http://io9.com/10-territorial-disputes-that-mean-your-maps-are-already1679513142
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