Imperial College Model United Nations takes on LIMUN

Imperial College Model United Nations sent twelve of its finest delegates (and two chairs!) off to Europe’s biggest MUN conference, LIMUN. We showed up bright-eyed and eager on Friday afternoon, ready for what we knew would doubtlessly be a great weekend. And boy were we right! It was a weekend filled with long hours of debate, endless reunions with friends from previous conferences (half of whom you still call by the country they represented the first time you met - because who has time to learn actual names at MUN), and a black-tie ball where enough indiscretions were spotted to ignite the committee gossip boxes the next day.

Our delegate in the Security Council heatedly debated the situation in the Korean Peninsula. As the delegate of China, he spent most of his time trying to reach a deal with the fierce delegates of the US and France. In the end, an agreement was not attained and vetoes fell on both sides; luckily, however, they managed to solve their differences at the ball, establishing superiority through a decisive council dance-off.

Our delegate in the International Fund for Agriculture Development, lovingly called I(FAM) by the committee, found themselves debating GM crops as the delegate of China (finally something relevant to their degree!). The highlight of the weekend was undeniably watching the creative punishments distributed by the Chairs which ranged from leading a committee-wide yoga session to giving an impromptu presentation on ‘The History of the Slut Drop’. Surprisingly, IFAD actually did get some work done and the committee passed a resolution co-sponsored by yours truly.

We also had a delegate in the International Court of Justice, which is the UN’s court for settling disputes between countries and is notorious for being populated with Law students seeking to flex their knowledge of international law. As the only non-law student there, our delegate was the advocate of the USA, responsible for defending the US against Iran’s prosecution. Basically, during the Iran-Iraq war, the US shot down a civilian Iranian plane killing 290 civilians, possibly accidentally or possibly to flex their military muscle. Weird flex but okay. Our delegate had to convince the 15 judges that killing 290 people is legal under international law by looking for loopholes in treaties. We lost the case but at least we convinced four judges that what the US did was legal. International law is scary.

Our delegate in the Maritime Committee found that representing China on the subject of Maritime trade is like representing the US on freedom, everybody either loves you or hates you. China was probably the most used word throughout the entire weekend. They ended up passing two resolutions on the environment and trade, where surprisingly the developing world ended up having its way by rivalling the European point of view.

The Special Political and Decolonisation Committee or SPECPOL’s topic of debate was the Belt and Road Initiative, which our delegate found got extremely intense, especially when you are China and everyone has constant questions, concerns and demands. Luckily, the conference ended with their draft resolution passing with a large majority of votes to the great surprise of the other block (seeing them rage was quite satisfying!!)

In its first ever session at LIMUN, The International Civil Aviation Organisation promised to fly delegates high in the search of a solution for global growth in aviation (even in the absence of aeronautical engineers). The finale to three hectic days didn’t disappoint, with a spectacular swing of opinion seeing our Chinese delegation earn a supermajority on a resolution co-sponsored with Russia and South Africa, and the German delegate ending up voting against his own draft!

All in all, once again, LIMUN did not disappoint and was unanimously viewed as a spectacular weekend by everyone who attended. ICMUN would like to extend a big congratulations to everyone who made it to the conference, as a delegate or a chair and, in particular, to the five Imperial students who received commendations or awards. LIMUN is, unfortunately, the last conference of the year, however, we will be attending both OXIMUN and CIUMUN early next term (both conferences offer beginner committees!!), and so we really encourage anyone interested to join us next year!