| Harvard International Relations Council | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | HIRC |
| Formation | 1955 |
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose/focus | Education |
| Location | Cambridge, MA |
| Official languages | English |
| President | Christopher D. Coey |
| Main organ | Board of Directors |
| Affiliations | United Nations Department of Public Information |
The Harvard International Relations Council (HIRC) is a non-profit organization that promotes awareness of International Relations. It is composed as several semi-independent but centrally funded programs, which each promote awareness of international relations in different ways. Those programs are Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN), Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN), the Harvard International Review (HIR), the Harvard Program in International Education (HPIE), Harvard Intercollegiate Model United Nations (ICMUN), and the Harvard International Relations on Campus (IRoC).
HIRC is the largest student organization at Harvard College. It is a registered 501(c)(3)[1] that is run entirely by undergraduate students, and it is an affiliated Non-Governmental Organization with the United Nations Department of Public Information.[2]
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Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) is one of the oldest Model United Nations simulations in the world. It was founded in 1953 when the Harvard student group that had been simulating the League of Nations since the 1920s decided to start a new simulation to reflect the new organization that had been established at the end of World War II.[3][4] Every year, students from around the world attend the conference, which is currently held at the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. The next session of HMUN will be the 59th session, and it will be held January 26–29, 2012.
Like many Model United Nations simulations, HMUN offers committees in 5 categories:
Delegates represent countries or famous individuals, and must work to solve problems through debate and compromise while still promoting the interests and policies of the nation or person they represent.
The 58th Session of HMUN had a staff of nearly 190 Harvard undergraduates. These staff members are organized into three groups: the Secretariat, the Senior Staff, and the Junior Staff.[5]
The Secretariat consists of the top-level officers of Harvard Model United Nations who oversee all branches and activities of the conference.
There are nine Secretariat members: the Secretary-General, who is responsible for the conference as a whole, the Director-General, who is the administrative head of the conference, the Comptroller, who is responsible for conference finances, and six Under-Secretaries-General in the various branches of the conference: administration, business, substantive support, and the three substantive organs, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Councils, and the Specialized Agencies. The DG, Comptroller, Administration, and Business organs comprise the executive organs, and Substantive Support is both a substantive and an executive organ.
The Secretary-General is elected annually in March by the Board of Directors of the IRC and the outgoing staff of the previous conference. He or she is traditionally a member of the past year's Secretariat. The remaining Secretariat members are appointed by the Secretary-General in coordination with the Secretary-General of HNMUN.
The Secretary-General of HMUN 2012 is Hunter M. Richard '12, and his Secretariat includes Stephanie N. Oviedo '12 (Director-General), Ana Choi '13 (Administration), Ainsley Faux '13 (Business), Alexandra Harsacky '13 (Comptroller), Sofia Hou '13 (Innovation and Technology), Juliana Cherston '13 (General Assembly), Ethan Lyle '13 (Economic and Social Council), and Charlene Wong '13 (Specialized Agencies).[6]
The senior staff, like the secretariat, can be split into executive and substantive staffers.
On the executive side, senior staff are the direct deputies of their respective USG. Each organ has several senior staff filling various responsibilities:
Director-General Organ:
The administration organ has several directors of administration who are the immediate assistants to the USG and who respond to questions about the conference and manage conference registration, and the business organ similarly has several directors of business, responsible for ad sales and conference amenities like catering. The comptroller organ has no staff.
On the substantive side, senior staff consist of committee directors, who are the substantive authorities for each committee and prepare the study guides that serve as the foundational documents for delegate preparation, and crisis directors, who coordinate crisis scenarios on continual crisis committees.
The Innovation and Technology (formerly substantive support) organ includes committee directors, directors of substantive support who handle presentations, and chargés d'affairs who are the primary point of contact for faculty advisers.
Again, junior staff vary from organ to organ, and can be split into executive and substantive staffers.
On the executive side, each organ has specialized assistant directors (ADs):
and each of these ADs assist their respective senior staff and USG with their duties.
On the substantive side:
The substantive support organ has similar assistants to the committee directors.
Like most Model UN conferences, HMUN recognizes exceptional delegates and schools with awards at the end of the conference. Awards are given to the delegates who demonstrate strong preparation, excellent speaking skills, adherence to national policy, and exceptional abilities of compromise and negotiation, and they are awarded by the directors of each committee. The number of awards on a committee varies by size, but each committee gives out at least one of each of the following awards:
Unlike many conferences, HMUN does not give Verbal Commendations.
Based on the number delegates receiving awards, awards are then given to the delegations that represent the best collection of delegates. The delegation awards, as well as their recipients at HMUN 2011, are:
After 57 years of successful Model UN in Boston, MA, HMUN has expanded its global reach by jumping to the East. In March 2010, with the help of WEMUN China, HMUN brought a chapter of its conference to Beijing for the first successful run of HMUN China. With over 1000 delegates and 13 committees, HMUN China brought together a newly diverse group of delegates in one of the world’s oldest cities. Entirely new perspectives were brought to the table in negotiations, and lasting international friendships were made as debate heated up throughout the four days.
In 2011, HMUN China moved to Shanghai: China’s center of economic growth. A prime example of East meeting West, Shanghai provides an exciting backdrop for the conference. Delegates will have the opportunity to participate in HMUN’s top-notch substantive debate between experiencing all Shanghai has to offer.
In August 2011, Harvard Model United Nations will further be expanding to Mumbai, India. The conference which will soon open registration is expected to gather 1200 delegates from India and across the World to the Mumbai World Trade center for 4 days of exciting debate and MUN simulation.
Harvard National Model United Nations or HNMUN is the longest running college-level Model United Nations simulation in the world and among the largest in the United States.[8] HNMUN is an annual four day event held in February, composed of three thousand university students of which half tend to be international students. The conference is held exclusively at the prestigious Boston Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston. The fifty-eighth session of HNMUN will be held from February 16–19, 2012. HNMUN was first run in 1955, ten years after the formation of the United Nations.
Awards are conferred upon individual delegates in their respective committees and to delegations in the categories of best small, best large, and best international delegation.
Delegation winners for the 2010 conference were:
Best Small Delegation United States Military Academy at West Point representing Tunisia.
Best Large Delegation Yale University representing the People's Republic of China.
Outstanding Large Delegation University of Chicago representing the Russian Federation.
Best International Delegation Universidad Metropolitana representing Germany.
There are three levels to the HNMUN staff structure: the Secretariat (consisting of the Director General and the Under Secretaries General), which is led by the Secretary General; the Senior Staff (consisting of Directors); and the Junior Staff (consisting of Assistant Directors).
Senior and Junior staff is split into two branches: an executive branch and a substantive branch. The executive branch takes care of the Administrative, Business, Finance, and Delegate Relations side of the conference. The substantive branch creates the delegates' committee experience, and is divided into the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and Regional Bodies, and the Specialized Agencies.
As with HMUN, the Secretariat oversees the administration of the conference. The Secretary-General is similarly elected, and appoints his or her Secretariat in coordination with the Secretary-General of HMUN. There are nine secretariat members: the Secretary-General, who is responsible for the conference as a whole, the Director-General, who is the administrative head of the conference, and seven Under-Secretaries-General in the various branches of the conference: administration, business, delegate relations, finance, and the three substantive organs, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Councils, and the Specialized Agencies.
The Secretary-General of HNMUN 2012 is Dominik Nieszporowski '12, and his Secretariat includes Sanghyeon Park '12 (Director-General), Samuel Pokross '13 (Administration), Nora Tufano '13 (Business), Maxwell Dikkers '13 (Delegate Relations), Madhavi Duvvuri '14 (Finance), Gillian Farrell '13 (General Assembly), Giacomo Bagarella '13 (Economic and Social Council and Regional Bodies), and Serena Bai '13 (Specialized Agencies).[9]
HNMUN staff is made entirely of Harvard undergraduate students. The staff selection process for one year's HNMUN conference begins immediately following the previous year's conference. First, the Secretary-General for the next conference is elected by the experienced staff members of HNMUN and HMUN. The candidates for Secretary-General are generally members of the past year's Secretariat. Once the Secretary-General has been elected, former members of the HNMUN Senior Staff apply for Secretariat positions. After Secretariat has been chosen in late March, members of the former Junior Staff are welcome to apply for about 60 Senior Staff positions. Junior Staff (Assistant Directors and Committee Moderators) is then selected in the fall. Both Senior and Junior Staffs are chosen by the Secretariat after a lengthy application and interview process. By late fall, the conference's staff is complete. The full staff reaches over 200 students.
HNMUN is host to about 3000 university students from over 35 countries and so requires a large amount of planning by the Secretariat and staff hosting the event. Planning for the following year's conference starts as soon as the current one ends. Topics for debate must be chosen early so that study guides may be prepared and delegates may research their topics. Study guides are written by directors over summer and assistant directors come on board to write updates and provide support to the directors starting in October. The Secretariat works throughout the year on aspects including delegate recruiting and conference logistical planning. The Secretariat is also responsible for long-term strategic planning for the conference.
Model UNs follow the general structure of the UN but for logistical and educational reasons, the structure differs somewhat. HNMUN's structure is similar to most Model UNs but there are a few important differences.
The NGO Program is unique to HNMUN and is a fantastic opportunity for delegates to experience a wide range of issues and committees across the conference. Each NGO is allowed to visit any committee within the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the Regional Bodies. NGOs have the option of working in a single committee or in several committees during the conference, depending on your personal comfort level and on the relevance of your NGO to the topic areas being discussed. NGOs have no voting status, but other than that, they have the same rights as any other delegate in the committee: NGOs may make speeches, participate in caucus, and lend their expertise to formulating resolutions.
Harvard Intercollegiate Model United Nations (ICMUN) is Harvard University's traveling Model UN team. The team is composed of about 60 Harvard undergraduates who attend conferences across the United States. The current leadership team of Harvard ICMUN is as follows:
In the 2010-2011 academic year, the team will attend conferences at Boston University, Georgetown, Columbia, Yale, UPenn, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago.
IRoC is the IRC branch that coordinates all of the IRC's on-campus outreach. IRoC builds links among undergraduates, Harvard's Weatherhead Center, and Harvard professors and fellows. IRoC conducts dinner discussions, study groups, and special events, and is responsible for putting on IR Week every Spring.