News Model United Nations Bilateral with Lady Margaret School 09.02.2024

On Wednesday evening we welcomed students from Lady Margaret School for a Model United Nations bilateral conference.

Delegates discussed a range of topics from debating the question of ownership of the Falkland Islands in 1982, to more current issues such as COP28’s Loss and Damage fund, and the ongoing tensions between China and Taiwan. Students participated in committees such as the Security Council, ECOFIN and Historical DISEC, and those representing permanent members in the Security Council particularly enjoyed using their veto powers.

For lots of students it was their first conference, but for the more seasoned MUN participants, they still learnt a great deal from the evening:

‘Engaging with other students and dedicating ourselves to the roles of different countries is always so fun and eye opening. As the representative of Iran, I found it slightly daunting at first to put myself in the shoes of a country with vastly different politics and history to that of Britain. But I got to do a deep dive into different political ideologies while also trying to find lots of ways to justify them. The historical DISEC was especially challenging as we couldn’t debate past the year of 1982 and it really showed me how greatly countries’ policies and politics have changed, even under 50 years.

It was particularly exciting to form an alliance with Russia and China, and in this powerful trio we actually managed to use our negotiation skills to secure temporary control over the Falklands. Unfortunately we were less successful in attempting to send Taiwanese separatists to fight in the Russian military. I learnt a lot from this conference and it was a very fun MUN experience all around!’