Chicago Model United Nations (ChoMUN) History

The University of Chicago’s traveling Model United Nations Team launched its own collegiate conference, ChoMUN, with the objective of providing delegates the opportunity to discuss and debate a wide range of issues in the context of unique, innovative, as well as diverse committees.

In the past twenty years, ChoMUN has grown to become one of the premier conferences on the collegiate Model UN circuit, specializing in unconventional and often unprecedented continual crisis committees. While the number and type of committees they run vary each year, certain core elements have come to be recognized as the essence of ChoMUN.

Description

Since 1998, ChoMUN has featured committees that vary across time, space, and theme. Variety is the trend this year as well – ChoMUN XXI’s committees span nearly all continents as well as a wide assortment of themes and time-periods. Yet, ChoMUN goes beyond picking fascinating themes. They also endeavor to translate these themes into inventive committees that promote interesting and engaging debate. Chairs, Crisis Directors, and ChoMUN Secretariat work together to ensure that the substance and theme of each committee is carefully matched to the structure for which it is best suited.

One of the core tenets of ChoMUN is that international relations and foreign policy are not solely the responsibility of transnational and international organizations. Corporate bodies, editorial boards of newspapers, government cabinets, and Security Councils are all capable of debating and determining foreign policy, albeit in different settings and contexts. ChoMUN’s committee-mix reflects this notion. For instance, ChoMUN XXI’s the Court of Emperor Haile Selassie demonstrates the challenges faced by the ruling Ethiopian cabinet as they deal with overlapping threats of internal conflict, external invasion and an international community that is not ready to practice what it preaches.