SPECPOL

Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful time researching about the two topics! This week, we are going to discuss an article written by a visiting associate professor of UC Berkeley. But, before going into the article, some background knowledge on the recent Iranian protests is important. On January 2, 2018, demonstrators took the streets of Iran in what’s considered as the “largest public display of discontent since the 2009 Green Movement” (CNN), protesting the nation’s stagnating economy and the lack of social freedoms. And this brings up a good point about the nature of unrest and instability in the region: economic grievances. The professor writes that “ the nuclear deal [referring to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal] raised people’s hopes for an expedited and expanded economic recovery… [but] the country’s current economic difficulties, as well as widespread corruption,” (Monshipouri) have not met the rise in people’s expectations. Specifically, Hassan Rouhani’s economic austerit...

Hello again! In this post, I will be touching on one of the largest international issues our decade has faced that is vital to your understanding of the Middle East: the Syrian War. First, please take a quick look through some amazing resources from BBC to expand your historical knowledge on the topic before looking at the recent article that I will be discussing. Here are some great resources: Country Profile: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703856 Timeline: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703995 Why is there a war? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229 Syria's Bloodiest Days of War: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18255521 How the war has persisted and spread: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28850956 After looking at these articles, I would now encourage you to look at this article from 24 January 2018 which highlights a US airstrike on IS headquarters that killed 150 militants: http://www.bbc.com/news...

Hi All! I highly encourage you to read this (very short :)) article on how businesses affect indigenous minorities. http://unpo.org/article/20582 One key portion to the article that I would really like you all to focus your solutions and attentions to is in the fourth paragraph. Here, it highlights how although the production of soy in Brazil helped the nation's economy tremendously, it displaced 20,000 to 40,000 indigenous people in the process. With an article like this, I would like you all to spend a lot of time really really putting in time to think about what we as a committee can do to help protect these indigenous minorities while still allowing developing nations to flourish. Thus, please answer a couple of these following questions from your individual standpoint as a person! I'd love to hear what you all think! Why is it that 20,000 to 40,000 people were displaced, yet the population of Brazil had little to no knowledge of this happening? What are t...

Hey Delegates! As you’re reading through the background guide and starting to conduct your own research, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the broad overarching themes in our topics. These ideas are present throughout the background guide, but it’s helpful to take a step back and consider the situation as a whole. Political Stability in the Middle East The goal of this topic is to examine how political issues function as the root of various regional symptoms of instability (e.g. economic stagnation, violence and terrorism, human rights violations). Too often, these individual problems are considered and treated in isolation because of their huge scale. However, all continue to exist due to a common underlying cause: the lack of strong, stable, and fair political institutions. This topic seeks to build those institutions and deploy strategies for curing the symptoms, if possible. Coordinating a divided international community to help a fractious regional community...

Outdoor Gardens in Ponsonby, NZ Hi Delegates! We are coming close to conference and I can't wait to meet all of you come early March. I hope you all had a restful winter break! I spent my winter break back home in New Zealand and Australia. Joe Macron, a policy analyst and political consultant at the U.S. Arab Centre published the following article at the end of last year. I've summarised it briefly below: The Question of Syrian Refugees: Macron highlights the growing tensions between the countries harbouring refugees and Syria. These tensions rising from economic conflict, border control etc. The Question of Palestine: Governments have traditionally taken a non-committal 'safe' route with Palestine. The US' recent actions have raised it into the spotlight yet again and triggered age-old conflicts. Macron predicts rising tensions between Iran and Turkey. The Question of Corruption: Specifically, this is in reference to the ongoing Saudi shakeups and i...

Protests in Tunisia After igniting the Arab Spring seven years ago, Tunisia has stood out as an example of democracy and stability in the tumultuous environment of the Middle East. Although people often regard Tunisia as an Arab Spring success story, there have recently been protests spreading throughout the country that question its stability and economic well-being. Seven years have passed since the start of the Arab Spring, yet many Tunisians still live in poor conditions, awaiting new policies to shift the economic tide of their country. Starting on January 7th, Tunisian citizens began gathering on the streets to protest the corruption and instability of their government, pushing for more welfare and better living conditions. Although the Tunisian government has promised better economic standings through reallocation of their funds, some citizens still do not trust their political leaders and are protesting in an interesting way--dressing up as clowns. By doing this, the pr...

According the United Nations Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Peoples’ Issues, indigenous communities, on a global scale, have fewer access to quality health services, giving way to higher mortality rates, higher rates of communicable diseases, and poorer nutrition. In fact, in Latin America, infant mortality rates are a staggering 60 percent greater in indigenous communities than non-indigenous ones. And on page eight and nine of the article, the IASG brings to attention to the need for the balance between western health services and traditional indigenous health practices. And in fact, according to the article, the World Health Organization, in its resolution CD47.R18, urges states to combine western health practices to that of traditional ones by incorporating indigenous people in the different stages of health services. To find a right balance between western practices and medicine and traditional indigenous services is important in that it addresses a fundamental barrier ...