UNSC BMUN LXVII

Hello Delegates, This post will be the first in a series of posts about the Al Qaeda linked terrorist organization, Al Shabaab. The series will explore how the group operates, organizes itself, and is able to persist within the Horn of Africa. While this series focuses on Al Shabaab, the insights and observations highlighted should be applied to terrorism in the Horn of Africa in general. Over the winter break, I returned to my hometown of Nairobi, Kenya. During my last week there, the city underwent a terrorist attack orchestrated by Al Shabaab (you can read more about the group in our topic synopsis). The devastating assault left 21 dead. It reminded Kenyans as well as the wider East African community about the magnitude of the problem of terrorism within the region as well as the difficulty involved in curbing the issue. The attack illustrates how acts of terror are enacted by Al Shabaab within the Horn of Africa and some factors to consider when coming up with ways to effectiv...

Hey delegates! Today we're going to hone in a little bit on governmental leadership and state structure. In particular, we'll be looking at Ethiopia as an emerging force of stability within the Horn of Africa. More than 80,000 people died in the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Eritrea-Ethiopia border war is perhaps best known for bringing about massive consequences within just two decades. As the war spread, so did the gross displacement of communities. But in July of 2018, Ethiopia and Eritrea formally declared an end to their state of war, the product of a two-decade-long standoff rooted in strained relations over a shared border. Many expect this official end of hostilities to bring some level of stability and peace to the Horn of Africa, a part of the world commonly regarded for its enduring conflicts and prominent trade routes.  To understand this conflict—namely, the effects of its end on the Horn of Africa—we must first dig into a little background:...

Welcome to BMUN LXVII and the Security Council! As a dais, we're so excited to work with you all in a fast paced, crisis heavy, yet still educational, committee.  We'll be focusing on the Horn of Africa as our first topic, and Open Agenda for our second. In Open Agenda, we've chosen the Crisis in Burundi, the Myanmar Genocide, and the Gulf of Guinea as our chosen selection, however, the committee has the power to potentially choose any other substantial topic they would like to debate on as well! You can find the official BMUN SC page  here , where you'll find our topic synopsis, executive summary, and the position paper guidelines. We highly suggest reading through the topic synopsis fully to prep for writing your position paper (it looks long but we swear there are a lot of pictures and citations). Also make sure to follow the position paper guidelines. They've changed substantially from previous years and you absolutely must follow them. Throughout...

Hey y'all! My name is Laura Nguyen and I will be one of your vice chairs this year for BMUN LXVII's Security Council. This year marks my fifth year participating in MUN and my first year in BMUN #flex. I'm originally from Huntington Beach, California, but I've come to love the Bay Area in the small time amount of time that I've lived here, especially because it harbors classic bops like "Blow the Whistle" and "I Got 5 on It." At Cal, I'm a freshman majoring in Sociology and Political Science; I'm especially interested in structural inequality and comparative politics. Outside of BMUN, I'm a member of Cal ACLU, where I work to educate and advocate for students and local communities alongside the overarching ACLU. I'm also in a sorority on campus, which is pretty dope. In my free time I like to watch funny British people like John Oliver or blow all of my money on the coffee and boba around Berkeley. I also really like going t...

Hey y'all! My name's Soham and be your head chair for the United Nations Security Council this March! I'm a junior here at Cal studying EECS and Engineering Physics. This'll be my 3rd year of chairing BMUN and my 7th doing MUN as a whole. I help with managing conference logistics for BMUN, and, to be perfectly honest, I spend a lot of time with this organization. Outside of it, I work as an associate software engineer at the engagement platform Disqus, I (very occasionally) do lab work on campus, and I work on development operations for a local startup. I've lived in Berkeley for the last three years, but I've spent most of my life down in Florida, so accordingly I love spending a lot of time in hot weather. I love finding new food places around campus, reading Medium articles, and buying things I don't need on Amazon. I honestly wish I could spend more time traveling, and I really hope to change that in my last year here.  BMUN, and MUN as a whole,...

Hello Everyone and Welcome to Security Council! My name is Ashley Njoroge and I will be serving as a vice chair for the UNSC at BMUN LXVII! I am a senior at UC Berkeley studying Cognitive Science and Computer Science. I am originally from Nairobi, Kenya so I am super stoked to be discussing our first topic, the Horn of Africa. I moved to Berkeley 3.5 years ago when I enrolled at UC Berkeley and it has been a blast! I participated in Model UN throughout high school in Nairobi and have been involved in BMUN since my freshman year. During my time in BMUN I have served as both a vice chair and head chair (I was actually head chair of the AU last year #WakandaForever). MUN has been one of the most formative activities I have been involved in. It is a great opportunity to step out of your lived experience and really ponder issues that are affecting our world in unprecedented ways, not to mention flex your creative muscles and problem-solving skills. I am super excited to see all the appr...