General Assembly 1st Committee (DISEC)As the First Committee of the General Assembly, the Committee on Disarmament and International Security (DISEC) is open to every member and observer of the United Nations. Its main tasks are creating foundations for sustained peace and stability around the globe and addressing issues of a potentially violent nature before they erupt into open conflict.
Topic Studyguide
Studyguide DISECTopic Overview
Topic A: Foreign Military bases - Impacts and consequences
The concept of bases outside a nation’s territory has been intricately linked to the development of the nation since the birth of the modern city-state. In Ancient Greece, foreign deployments by the Delian League were used to expand its influence and the trend continued well through the Roman Empire. Fast forward a couple of centuries to the Cold War; foreign military deployments at that point in time were at their peak. The end of the Cold War saw a significant and phased reduction in such bases, primarily from the Soviet side. The USA’s bases, though reduced, still occupy over 700 hundred locations across the world. Modern Russia has 25 military bases abroad: one located in Syria, and the rest in the former Soviet states of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Moldova. Other countries such as France and Britain still have deployments overseas. Therefore the topic will address issues concerning sovereignty, State of Force Agreements, the legal issues pertaining crime, security risks and a myriad, other effects such bases have in these countries.
Topic B: Cyber warfare: A new challenge for international security
Cyber warfare has proven to be capable of effectively endanger sovereign states´ affairs, as the case of Wikileaks shows. Moreover, state-frontiers begin to blur in the internet: For it does not require big financial, logistical, and public resources cyber-warfare can more easily be fought by smaller interest groups like terrorists. Thus, the characteristics of conventional warfare again change in the rapidly developing digital sphere and modern states offer a new Achilles´ heel here. Moreover, in times of a globalized informational network cyber weaponry can be used on a much more dangerous level threatening human lives and resources on a yet unpredictable scale and is therefore a growing danger for international security. Although some states already begun to search for legislative and security policies, measurements and internationally bargained perspectives must be found to predict and deter threats of cyber terrorism and set better settlements for use of cyber-weaponry in patterns of conventional warfare.
Committee Directors
Fiona Foulkes
University or Association:
University of OxfordProgramme:
English Law with German LawI expect from EuroMUN 2012...
a week's worth of high-level debate; new friendships from all over the world; and the chance to explore Maastricht.
Carolina Calkins
University or Association:
Javeriana University BogotaProgramme:
JournalismI expect from EuroMUN 2012...
Preparation, commitment, great debates, hard work and excellent results.