The Harvard International Relations Council (HIRC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote awareness of
international relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
based out of
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. As several semi-independent but centrally funded programs, the IRC focuses on a number of different outreach areas in an attempt to engage and inform people on international issues and policy-making. Programs within the IRC include:
* Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN)
* Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN)
* Harvard Intercollegiate Model United Nations (ICMUN)
* Harvard International Review (HIR)
* Harvard Program in International Education (HPIE)
* Harvard International Relations on Campus (IRoC)
* Model Security Council (MSC)
The IRC is also the largest student organization at
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
, and the largest student nonprofit a registered
501(c)(3) The organization is run entirely by undergraduate students, and it is an affiliated
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...
with the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Department of Public Information.
Leadership
The IRC leadership is divided between a Board of Directors and IRC Central. The Board of Directors is a group of members that collectively oversee the 6 individual programs and manage the direction of the organization. Members include one program head from each of the six individual programs and a number of elected members by the IRC body. The Board of Directors then vote on the appointment of the IRC President.
IRC Central Staff is chosen by the IRC Board of Directors and hold their corporate position until the election of a new Board of Directors. These officers head operations that allow to best promote international education and social impact, to manage its programs in a financially sound and sustainable manner, and to maintain its status as a non-profit corporation and an accredited NGO.
Harvard Model United Nations
Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) is one of the oldest
Model United Nations
Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...
simulations in the world having been founded in 1953 when the Harvard student group that had been simulating the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
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
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. Every year, students from around the world attend the conference, which is currently held at the
Sheraton Boston Hotel in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts. The next session of HMUN will be the sixty-seventh session, and it will be held from January 30 to February 3, 2020. Due to conference expansion, HMUN 2020 will be the largest conference in its storied history, with over 3300 delegates in attendance. As such, the conference will also hold committee sessions at the
Boston Marriott Copley Place.
Like many
Model United Nations
Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...
simulations, HMUN offers committees in four main categories:
* The
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...
(GA)
* The
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), including an NGO Program
* Regional Bodies, like the
African Union
* Specialized Agencies (SA), which include unique standing committees like the
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
and also include crisis committees (centered around a developing crisis) and the Press Corps.
Delegates may be tasked to represent countries or role-play famous individuals and cabinet members, and must work to solve problems through debate and compromise to achieve policy-making goals while still representing the interests of their assigned role.
Staff
The HMUN 2017 conference had a staff of 235
Harvard undergraduates.
Staff members are organized into three groups: the Secretariat, the Senior Staff, and the Junior Staff.
Secretariat
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, Innovation & Technology, and the three substantive organs, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council & Regional Bodies, and the Specialized Agencies. The DG, Comptroller, Administration, and Business organs comprise the executive organs, and Innovation and Technology are 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, along with the Director-General. The remaining Secretariat members are appointed by the Secretary-General in coordination with the Secretary-General of HNMUN. For HMUN 2018, Andrew R. Chang will serve as Secretary-General and Marija Jevtic will serve as Director-General.
Senior Staff
The senior staff, like the secretariat, includes both 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:
* Deputy-Director-General: General assistant to the DG on hotel and tech-related issues. Officially in charge of the conference when the Secretariat is in meetings or otherwise unavailable.
* Senior Director of Security: Manages security staff and operations.
* Director of Technology: Manages computer labs and provides technical support.
* Director of Special Projects: Occasionally appointed to work on long term conference-related projects.
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 two assistant comptrollers.
On the substantive side, senior staff consists 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 crisis and multimedia who handle presentations, and directors of faculty relations who are the primary point of contact for faculty advisers.
Junior Staff
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):
* the DG organ has several ADs of security,
* the administration organ has several ADs of administration,
* the business organ has several ADs of business,
and each of these ADs assist their respective senior staff and USG with their duties.
On the substantive side:
* moderators moderate debate and enforce the rules of procedure, and
* assistant directors prepare supplemental research and assist committee directors with running each committee
The substantive support organ has similar assistants to the committee directors.
Awards
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:
* Best Delegate
* Outstanding Delegate
* Honorable Mention
* Diplomatic Commendation
Unlike many conferences, HMUN does give Verbal Commendations.
Based on the number of delegates receiving awards, awards are then given to the delegations that represent the best collection of delegates.
HMUN China
In March 2010, with the help of WELAND International, HMUN brought a chapter of its conference to
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
for the first run of HMUN China with 13 committees and over 1,000 delegates.
In 2011, HMUN China moved to
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. For 2012, HMUN China returned to Beijing, hosted in the Beijing International Convention Center, with 15 committees and over 1,000 delegates.
In 2013, HMUN China moved across town to the Crowne Plaza Sun Palace, increasing the conference to 16 committees for 1,300 delegates. The conference brought in students from over 27 countries to participate in four days of debate. The 2013 session increased the diversity of its committees, running 5 Specialized Agencies and a range of present-day and historical Regional Bodies, including simulations of the Global Health Cluster, the Pakatan Rakyat, and the 1814 Congress of Vienna.
Since 2015, HMUN has co-hosted with Alpha Partners Education. The 2016 session was held March 17–20 in Beijing.
HMUN India
HMUN India 2011 - The First Session
In August 2011, over 1250 delegates from across India and some other countries (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, etc.) took part in the first HMUN India session, which took place at World Trade Centre, Mumbai, India.
HMUN India 2012 - The Second Session
The second session of HMUN India took place at the Hyderabad International Convention Center in Hyderabad, India from the 16 to 19 August 2012. This was co-hosted by MUN Cafe- a brand of Worldview Education Services. HMUN India 2012 had over 900 delegates from 110 schools across 24 cities in over 15 countries. Karachi Grammar School, Pakistan was declared the Best Large Delegation at the conference.
HMUN India 2013 - The Third Session
The third session of HMUN India was recently held again at The Hyderabad International Convention Center from the 15th to 18 August. This was co-hosted yet again with MUN Cafe. The conference witnessed participation of over 1200 students from across 28 cities in 8 countries. The highlights of the 3rd session included the Speaker Series with an elite panel of speakers including the Key Note at the Opening Ceremony delivered by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winner- 2007- The UN Inter-governmental panel on Climate Change. Karachi Grammar School, Pakistan retained its title as the Best Large Delegation at the conference.
HMUN India 2014 onwards
The fourth Session of HMUN was yet again held at the Hyderabad International Convention Center and co-hosted by Worldview Education. The conference saw a greater participation compared to its last session. This time the organizing committee experimented with something they called the Morning Plenary every morning for an hour wherein they re-capped what had been done the day before and showcased some of the entries for the HMUN India IMPACT awards - Videos of NGOs and groups working towards the accomplishment of the Millennium Development goals.
The Special Application committees in this session included
# Security Council
# Historical Security Council
# English Civil War - Long Parliament
# Press Corps
Harvard National Model United Nations
Harvard National Model United Nations
The Harvard International Relations Council (HIRC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote awareness of international relations based out of Harvard University. As several semi-independent but centrally funded programs, the IRC focus ...
or HNMUN is the longest running college-level Model United Nations simulation in the world and among the largest in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. 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 every year at the
Boston Park Plaza
The Boston Park Plaza is a historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, opened on March 10, 1927. It was built by hotelier E.M. Statler as part of his Statler Hotels chain. A prototype of the grand American hotel, it was called a "c ...
.
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.
In 2012, a regional HNMUN was established,
Harvard National Model United Nations - Latin America
The Harvard National Model United Nations - Latin America (HNMUN-LA) is an annual traveling Model United Nations conference that is run by the Harvard International Relations Council and a local team from a host city. HNMUN-LA is the regional edit ...
, held in a similar fashion as
Harvard World Model United Nations
The Harvard World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) is an annual traveling model United Nations conference that is run by Harvard University and a local university team from a host city. WorldMUN moves to a new city each year and is regarded as one ...
.
HNMUN Conferences
Notes
:1.The 2021 session of HNMUN was moved online due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Staff
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 Operations 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.
Secretariat
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, finance, and operations, and the three substantive organs, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council & Regional Bodies, and the Specialized Agencies.
Harvard National Model United Nations
/ref>
Staff Selection
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 80 Senior Staff positions. Junior Staff (Assistant Directors and Committee Moderators) is then selected in the fall. Both Senior and Junior Staff 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 well over 200 students.
Committee Structure
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.
* Only one resolution may be passed on each topic. This is meant to stress consensus and compromise between delegates. This is achieved by the fact that:
* Resolutions cannot be sponsored
* There are no "friendly" or "hostile" amendments, as there are no sponsors with whom to confer
Harvard Intercollegiate Model United Nations
Harvard Intercollegiate Model United Nations (ICMUN) is Harvard University's traveling, competitive Model UN team. The team is composed of about 60 Harvard undergraduates who attend conferences across the United States throughout the academic year. In the past, the team was headed by a pair of head delegates usually elected to the position during the second semester of their sophomore year, but In 2019 the leadership structure changed to allow four head delegates who jointly manage the ICMUN program.
Harvard ICMUN has consistently ranked within the top five collegiate Model UN teams in the United States over the past several years.
Harvard International Review
The ''Harvard International Review
The ''Harvard International Review'' is a quarterly international relations journal published by the Harvard International Relations Council at Harvard University. The ''HIR'' offers commentary on global developments in politics, economics, busi ...
'' is a quarterly journal and website of international relations published by the Harvard International Relations Council at Harvard University. The HIR offers commentary on global developments in politics, economics, business, science, technology, and culture, as well as interviews with prominent global leaders and reviews of books and documentaries. Founded in 1979 to "cover that middle ground between academic scholarship and journalism", the HIR is a widely distributed journal across the United States and around the world in more than 60 countries, boasting a readership of over 30,000. According to its mission statement, "The HIR features underappreciated topics in the international affairs discourse and underappreciated perspectives on more widely discussed topics. The HIR aims to serve as a trend-setter among similar publications by directing rather than following the public’s attention."
The magazine is composed of the following sections: Features, Perspectives, Spotlight, World in Review, Global Notebook, Interview, Endpaper, and Correspondence. The website features exclusive content and active blogs on current events.
The HIR has featured scholars and policymakers from around the world, including Nelson Mandela, Samuel P. Huntington, Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...
, Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey David Sachs () (born 5 November 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst, and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor. He is known for his work ...
, Shimon Peres, Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was ...
, Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...
, Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher, who since 1972 has taught and worked in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sen has made contributions to welfare economics, social choice theory, econom ...
, Gro Harlem Brundtland
Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician ( Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organizat ...
, Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
, Zbigniew Brzezinski
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński ( , ; March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), or Zbig, was a Polish-American diplomat and political scientist. He served as a counselor to President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1968 and was President Jimmy Carter' ...
, Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, Dick Cheney, Ban Ki-moon, N.R. Narayana Murthy
Nāgavārā Rāmarāo Nārāyana Mūrthy (born 21 August 1946) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder of Infosys, and has been the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief mentor of the company before ret ...
, Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...
and Javier Solana
Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga (; born 14 July 1942) is a Spanish physicist and PSOE politician. After serving in the Spanish government as Foreign Affairs Minister under Felipe González (1992–1995) and as the Secretary General of NA ...
.
International Relations on Campus (IRoC)
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.
Harvard Program for International Education
The Harvard Program for International Education (HPIE) is a public service program run and staffed by Harvard undergraduates passionate about international relations. HPIE seeks to promote international awareness and education in today's youth. HPIE tutors teach from a standardized curriculum that they develop on-campus and distribute to students on-site. HPIE tutors go through the curriculum, which incorporates useful skills students can use in their other studies, over the course of eight sessions, with one class period each week. Previous curricula have included topics in immigration, nation-building, and the politics of clean water. Curricula culminate in a short conference that brings students together for HPIE Day, an exciting day of debate on the Harvard campus. HPIE Day allows students to demonstrate what they have learned, as well as to finish each semester energized about international affairs.
Model Security Council
Model Security Council (MSC) is the organization in charge of student recruitment for all IRC programs. Though individual programs conduct their own recruitment and outreach events, MSC conducts IRC-wide promotion for all programs and communication with the incoming class of new students every year. It is in charge of running a series of events during the "Visitas" weekend at the end of April where admitted Harvard students can come to explore the campus in Cambridge, MA. MSC also refers to the one-day conference that the organization runs during the first week on September geared towards incoming Harvard freshmen but open and welcoming to all new members which includes a Model UN simulation and workshops about IRC programs. The conference gives participants a taste of the competitive and staffing sides of Model UN and an introduction to the business, technology, education, and debate opportunities available in the IRC. The conference is preceded by a Welcome Week that exposes incoming freshmen to the opportunities and events offered by the IRC, and has a special emphasis on creating communities for freshmen in many of their first years away from home.
The Co-Presidents of MSC are elected by the IRC Board of Directors and serve a one-year term where they manage the full-cycle recruitment of first-year students from "Visitas" to MSC proper. The organization divides itself into Administration, Business, Programs, Communication, and Mentorship divisions.
Model Security Council 2022 is currently led Co-Presidents Abigail Mack and Calvin Osborne.
See also
* Model United Nations
Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...
* Harvard Model Congress
Harvard Model Congress (HMC) is the largest congressional simulation conference in the world. HMC provides high school students from across the United States and abroad an opportunity to experience American government firsthand. Although HMC is ...
*Harvard World Model United Nations
The Harvard World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) is an annual traveling model United Nations conference that is run by Harvard University and a local university team from a host city. WorldMUN moves to a new city each year and is regarded as one ...
*Yale International Relations Association
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
External links
*
Harvard Model United Nations
Harvard National Model United Nations
Harvard Intercollegiate Model United Nations
HMUN India
References
{{Authority control
Model United Nations
Harvard University
1955 establishments in Massachusetts