UNHSC 28th June 2014

Issue 2

Nikita Biswal explores the International Debate revolving around the legalities of American

Presence in Afganishthan gime to give effect to its re-sponse measures; to which the delegate of USA eclecti-cally voiced that there exists no legal maxim robust enough to compel the United States of America to defend its national integrity within a certain timeframe, and eco-nomic instability caused by the September 11 attacks has granted it this reservation. While the delegate of Ukraine stamped the “US-led war in Afghanistan” illegal saying that the 9/11 attacks were “not perpetuated by Af-ghanistan”, the delegate of Russia cited ICJ rulings to express that the terrorist ac-tions of Al-Qaeda can be af-filiated to the Afghanistan regime as the government has taken no measures to eliminate their presence in the state, and have not com-plied with international obli-gations as per various resolu-tions. While the council mulled over legal grounds with grave solemnity, it simultaneously made note of the principle of “instant custom” and high-lighted that certain interna-tional events require uncon-ventional or tailored legal

procedure. Yet amidst the snow-shower of legal debate the connotations attached to American action were piped down and were eventually lost. As the world rests on the verge of transition, faced with questions that challenge the rudimentary practice of international law and ration-ality, diplomats dither to choose between an unjust peace and a diplomatic injus-tice.

As the Security Council met to discuss the measures tak-en by the America in re-sponse to the September 11 terrorist attacks, the council sought together to deliberate the legality of Operation En-during Freedom in the land of thousand suns. The council discussed and contemplated at length as to whether Operation Enduring Freedom is anticipatory or preventive in nature; and the-matically, the Ambassador of the United States of America (USA) thrashed all lingering doubts, reiterating that the American War on Terror is the euphemist pursuit to “prevent and deter” all ter-rorist actions in future and is “not at all anticipatory in na-ture”. The council also under-scored that there exists a dis-crepancy in terms of the time taken by the American re-

UNGA 28th June 2014

Issue 2

Urvi Sikri presents a whimsical take on the Special Emergency Session of the General Assembly.

turned into an intense con-flict. Just like the charming princes would fight amongst themselves for the princess in the fairytale, so are the nations of the world engaging in a diplomatic battle to de-cide on the Suez Canal. Today’s debate saw the mate-rialization of varying stances on the Crisis. While the dele-gate of Yemen condemned the actions of Israel, Britain and France as a “breach of sovereignty”, the delegate of Belgium denounced the Suez n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n a s “provocative”, and suggested for a “neutral law” to ensure no country dominates the Ca-nal. The delegate of Western Germany passionately de-clared – “The canal is not po-litical, and cannot be regard-ed as a domestic enterprise.” The delegate proposed two solutions – troops to with-draw from the conflicted re-gion, and the set-up of an au-thoritative Suez Canal Com-mittee. “Suez Canal belongs to Egypt, as much as Wash-ington DC belongs to the USA” – exclaimed the dele-gate of Syria. The delegate wished to see Israel rightfully punished, as he believed that

the United Kingdom and France are “conspiring against the Arab nations, as they feel threatened by a strong Arab leader.” As the day progressed, the committee received an up-date from the Secretary Gen-eral of the United Nations. The words “Law Not War” were displayed on banners of demonstrators in London. Is-raeli forces captured the en-tire Sinai Peninsula on the morning of November 5, with massive Egyptian casualties. Every fairytale has its fatali-ties. As princes fight for the fair princess, wars are waged and civilians die. And as na-tions fight, we reiterate the words of the London Banner: “Law Not War”.

Once upon a time, there lived a fair princess called the Su-ez Canal. She was an ex-t r e m e l y i m p o r t a n t “possession” to any kingdom whose prince would have her, for her kingdom was en-dowed with trade, riches and bounty. Hence, all the charm-ing princes of the world de-sired her, and wanted to make her their wife. The beginning of this fair-ytale is vividly similar to our current day Suez Crisis, the ownership of which has

UNCTAD 28th June 2014

Issue 2

TRANSCENDING ECONOMIC BACKWARDNESS Anahita Prasad explores the international debate revolving around the economic position and elevation of developing nations.

particular, stresses on the el-evation of African nations simply because they lag in areas such as GDP, per capi-tal income and standard of living. It was also stated that since African nations have a signif-icant supply of diamonds, an increase in its trade would create larger opportunities for economic growth. The delegate of Saudi Arabia, however, stands cynical of the consequences of increase in this trade: unsure if it would lead to economic de-velopment or just aggravate the poverty and exploitation. The delegate of the United Kingdom, contradicting the delegate of India, clearly stated its full support for the development of said nations. With approximately 0.7% of its national income going into aid for African nations, coun-tries like South Africa are receiving as much as 19 mil-lion pounds from the United Kingdom alone. Once United Kingdom’s stance in the mat-ter was clearly put, certain nations took slight offence to its implication that it was not

only the strongest supporter, but also the only supporter. A heated debate continues to resolve the perpetual stagna-tion these nations have fallen into and possibilities that are yet to be pursued.

Sudan opens debate for easi-ly one of the most economi-cally significant conferences in history, and the attention is on the elevation of devel-oping nations, namely those of Africa. The delegate of India gets the flow going by stating the various flaws that stand out in the current conditions of developing nations and the lack of support that said na-tions receive. The voting rights of nations in the mone-tary fund, for instance, are based upon the economic po-sition of a nation. This, along with the insignificant scope for expansion from the pri-mary to the secondary prod-ucts for developing nations due to the prominence of de-veloped nations, has conse-quented in the stagnation of growth of states. France, in

ISI 28th June 2014

Issue 2

THE AIRBORNE CONSPIRACY A captured flight maneuvered by indecisiveness, Surbhi Sachdeva throws light on the issue at hand being debated in the ISI.

away its precious fuel, the offi-cials dissected their best bet for a landing location. A consensus of sorts was achieved in terms of the ulti-mate destination of Afghani-stan, but the interim refuel spot still demanded attention. The officers fluctuated quite rapidly between China and Pakistan, emphatically stressing on preservation of the covert na-ture of the operation. While the Liason Officer deemed airspace to be the saf-est since no country would be willing to shoot down civilians, he also put forward China as an ideal landing location as Paki-stan’s alliance with China was strong and ergo the latter would be willing to comply with for-mer’s demands. He also felt that landing in Pakistan could result in all metaphorical accusatory fingers pointing at their govern-ment. Soon after, the Director General of Military Intelligence com-mented that China shared no common interest or mutual ben-efits with Pakistan, thus nullify-ing any scope for negotiation. Instead he suggested that the plane be landed in Pakistan, with the government initially appearing to be resilient but ul-timately succumbing for solely

‘humanitarian’ reasons, though the undisclosed ulterior motive still held true. He further went on to opine that in order ‘to gain leverage on the captain, his family in India be taken hostage by ISI foot-officers present there’. Several officers even put forth the idea of executing the civilian passengers in order to instill a sense of fear. The aforementioned emerged as the two major stances of the officers present, but stagnation in debate persisted. An ultima-tum was reached in the form of a n i n f o r m a l p o l l i n g (accompanied by justification of the respective vote) on the pro-spective landing spot. Amongst the 21 delegates, Lahore pre-vailed as the consensually agreed upon location, receiving a hefty majority of 14 votes while China received a negligi-ble and defeated minority of three.

The congregation of ISI offi-cials commenced on a very ur-gent note, what with the IC 814 all ready to take off and the crux of the negotiation with In-dia lying in a successfully exe-cuted hijack. The core of the current scenar-io, which was to be deliberated on by the convened officers, was where to land the plane in order to refuel and replenish food supplies and arms. The sit-uation was verging on a dire crisis that could result in the ISI’s cover being blown on a global scale. As the airplane en-circled Lucknow and wasted

UNHCR 28th June 2014

Issue 2

DRIVING TO STABILITY Aayushi Mehrish reports from the UNHCR.

the delegation of France stat-ed relevant solutions, such as focus on border and military check. They further stated that a threat analysis should be conducted and red tapism should be avoided as it is a humanitarian threat, which was supported by majority of the committee. Delegates are expected to come to a unified approval as the committee follows the policy of a plan of action, considering the millions of lives at stake.

On the 27th of June 1992 Ambassadors gathered to re-solve the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina where hu-manitarian personnel was at-tacked. The committee commenced by a brief discussion on the crisis update, which stated that a delegate of the ICRC was killed at the Serb check-point while entering Saraje-vo. The incident resulted in the withdrawal of ICRC tem-porarily from Sarajevo and then from whole of Bosnia. The committee proceeded to discuss the situation in Bos-nia in a detailed manner through a moderated caucus. The delegation of Bosnia stated, "Bosnia is in a situa-tion of civil strife, thus pro-vision of safety should not be expected." On further debate,

UEFA 28th June 2014

Issue 2

THE PITCH OF ANALOGIES With persistent rivalry between the clubs, Svaraj reports from the Historic Session of the UEFA 2005 Crisis Committee.

and Everton getting to play in the UEFA cup, as it be-lieves that Liverpool should be allowed to defend their title at the expense of a “smaller” club. It also empha-sized the inability of The Football Association of han-dling this situation, whereas a similar situation was suc-cessfully handled by the Roy-al Spanish Football Federa-tion in the year 2000. “Have you heard about the ship Titanic? The situation of Liverpool is just like that of the ship. Strong and virtually indestructible, but in the end, it was destined to crash into an iceberg, that iceberg is revolution.” The representa-tive of the Hungarian Foot-ball Association was quoted as saying. The representative was not in favour of Liver-pool qualifying for the UCL. The debate that followed caused a rumble between the delegates of the Hellenic Football Association and the Football Association, leading to personal attacks, thus bringing down the morale of the committee. The representative of the Portuguese Football Federa-tion stated that the Liverpool

fans protesting against the decision was not fair for Everton as Everton have a smaller fan base and there-fore, they did not have the same ability to protest against some unfavourable decisions. He further empha-sised that this would lead to massive riots and protests by football fans across the world, leading to the possibil-ity of all the clubs getting a chance to play in the UCL, be they deserving or not. Even though almost 90% of the committee seemed to be in favour of Everton qualify-ing for the UCL and Liver-pool not getting to defend their title, so as to maintain diplomacy and the fair-play that the sport is known for.

In the season of 2004-2005 , Liverpool did not qualify to play in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) for the season of 2005-2006 as they did not finish in one of the top four positions in the English League. This is the basis of some very fruitful debate in the committee room. The committee moved into a moderated caucus to question the eligibility of Liverpool playing in the UCL. The Russian Football Feder-ation (RFF) was in favor of Liverpool playing in the UCL

EDITORIAL 28th June 2014

Issue 2

“And if you never stop when you wave goodbye, you just might find if you give it time: you’ll wave hello again.” -‘Wheel’, John Mayer Circa 1590, English writer Gabriel Harvey made waves as a wordsmith; he was an ink-slinger of sorts, who was concerned chiefly with the linguistic, and became known as a great initia-tor of etymologies, coining multiple lexis such as “jovial”, "conscious", "extensively", "idiom", "notoriety", "rascality" and others that have now entered the space of standard vocabu-lary.

However, arguably his most significant dialectal design was that of “goodbye”- that crafty trespasser we find, to our surprise, lurking on the tips of our tongues, enmeshed in an un-easy silence, or spoken so loud and large that the distinctive syllables echo in the smallness of the three minutest bones of our bodies. Ironically, “goodbye” originated as “God be with ye”. A few decades and contractions later, it came to us fresh-faced and profane, leaving be-hind its pious beginnings and diving straight into the realm of un-divine departures. Having said that, it is my belief that if you look closely enough, rooted in a destination is an-other starting line. The enticing prospect of a tabula rasa or blank slate coupled with the chances of renewal, “goodbye” can be as potent a holder of new prospects and unmapped cartographies as “hello”. Moreover, knowing the peculiar cyclical orchestrations of the uni-verse, goodbyes are often reformed into greetings, and farewells never quite final. Perhaps goodbyes do not necessarily represent inverted hellos, and are not as unholy as they first seem. Although I cannot say for certain what cosmic collisions and unwitting seren-dipities lie beyond this particular goodbye, I can voice with surety that patiently and whole-heartedly, I await my opportunity to wave hello again. -Aarohi Narain

Editor in Chief

A Short History of Nearly Everything 28th June 2014

Issue 2

Were you too lazy to read up on your country’s history? No worries, we bring to you your country’s short history, of nearly everything. Understand your history in a few lines with tl;drs (too long; didn’t read.) 1. USA: Helping nations establish democracy; helping self to establish oil supplies. 2. Ukraine: We’re just caught up in a big ego feud between Russia and USA, really. 3. South Korea: Thank God, we are not North Korea. 4. North Korea: We have state sanctioned official haircuts. Hair conformity or severe punishment, you choose. 5. Madagascar: No one even knew who we are. But then the movies came out, and suddenly everyone likes to move it, move it. 6. Italy: Really important on the map; Mussolini and fascism; now we sell shoes. 7. Africa: Why does everyone think we are a country? Continent, repeat after me, continent. 8. Australia: Things here are of a very high koala-ty. 9. Russia: Then, things got worse. 10. Greece: We were so productive back then, we did so much for mankind. Sigh, bankruptcy.

Urvi Sikri

The Allegory of Time 28th June 2014

Issue 2

“In today’s time, you don’t find people appreciating the past that binds them. But almost ironically, it is our roots that shape so much of who we are.” Orange adjusted the watch on her wrist. She was quite dynamic for a writer - a hat with Asian prints atop her head, mouth painted violet, her earlobes weighed down by bronze painted clock dials. “You cannot deny that it is from the archaic designs of our past that we build ourselves the syntax of this day and age. Our History is profound. It is the only thing so constant and unvarying that it can offer security to the human act of planning.” Her eyes widened as she worded her thoughts, almost esoterically; a faint fire danced in her pupils as she spoke of History with the blissful pride of a young descendant. “That’s from my book by the way,” she said as she turned around to the team of men, “Come on. Tag along.” She marched straight through the gates of the archaeological site. The men followed, their pit black suits ironed to the last stitch. “We have to say, we quite disagree.” One of them said. Orange widened her eyes in utter shock; she smelled treachery. “Who says history is unchangeable? To us, it is craft clay. If it is our past that shapes our present, then history is just as feeble as the now.” He smirked, and the delegation behind him laughed. “History is yet another megalithic structure.” His eyes scanned the ruins of the age-old pal-ace. Broken pillars and swollen shards of the structure rested on the site under the hot sun like stones in a graveyard. “All it needs is a little renovation. We dislike how you diminish History to a mere page in a book.” He dusted his hands and curdled his lips as he turned towards Orange. She stuttered. “But…What a blasphemous thing to say! You cannot reconstruct history!” “Who says you can’t?” He took out a pen from his pants, and signed the ownership papers of the site. “It is a rather simple spell - Renovo Historia.” Orange crumpled to the ground like a dying day. “Who are you?” The team pulled up their ties, and spoke in a single tuba tone, “We, madam, are diplomats.”

Nikita Biswal

Historical Hilarity 28th June 2014

Issue 2

Since at TISMUN 2014: Renovia Historia, we are Rescripting history, here are some hilari-ous episodes from the past. 1. When the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 ended on July 22, the army of Liechtenstein marched home to a ceremonial welcome in Vaduz. Popular legend claims that 80 men went to war but 81 came back. 2. Pedro José Domingo de la Calzada Manuel María Lascuráin Paredes served as the 34th President of Mexico. For 45 minutes. 3. After Pope Gregory IX of the 13th century associated cats with devil worship in his book, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. 4. In Ancient Egypt, servants were smeared with honey. In order to attract flies away from the pharaoh. 5. In 1932, employed soldiers in Australia armed with guns participated in a war against the Emu birds. 6. In 1788, during the Austro-Turkish war, 100,000 men of the Austrian army set up camp at Karansebes, fought among themselves and lost 10,000 men.

Urvi Sikri