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The Ultimate MUN

Delegate Guide
Created by Bianka Bodon
President of the Milestone MUN Society 2020-21
03/10/2020

Preface
Dear Delegate,

I have created this research guide to facilitate your preparation for your
conferences. The guide contains questions for you to try to answer in order
to get to know your country, its policy, and the topic better. I hope that it
will be a useful tool for you to write your position paper and resolution, or to
simply make you feel more prepared and confident when you arrive at your
conference.

You don’t have to answer every question and exercise that is in this guide,
and some of them might not be applicable to your committee. I recommend
that you first read over the entire guide, decide which questions are most
important for you to answer, and then begin your research. This document
is simply intended to make your preparation easier, not to overwhelm you. I
have tried to compile the most useful tasks and questions into one
document so that you have something to refer back to when you are
researching. I can guarantee you that if you spend some time using this
guide, you will be prepared for the debates in your committee.

If you have any suggestions, questions, additions, or mistakes you would

like to point out, you can contact me on Facebook or send me an email at
bodonbiankab@gmail.com.

Happy Research!
Bianka Bodon
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Step 1: Getting to know your country

At your MUN conference, it is extremely important that you know some basic
information about your country, even if you won’t use them in your debate. The
following questions are intended to familiarize you with your country so that you
can make inferences about what decisions its real representatives would make if
they were in your position.

Generalities
● What are three things that your country is most famous for?
● What is its history? List three historical events that are very important.
● Has it participated in war in the past 150 years? Is it currently at war?
● Briefly research your country policy on the following topics, paying
particular attention to the ones that relate to your topic:
○ Climate change, energy (fossil, renewable, and nuclear)
○ Education, equality in education, women’s education
○ Healthcare, social welfare, and pandemics
○ Nuclear and other weapons
○ Social inequality and empowering the poor
○ Political extremism and terrorism
○ Human rights, refugees, women’s rights
○ Trade regulations, protectionism, illegal trade
○ Optional: the dark web, cryptocurrencies
● Find two or three online newspapers from your country, and start following
them. Make a habit of checking them a few times a week. Try to choose a
diverse range of publications, like one governmental one and one opposition
one. It is even better if the publication focuses specifically on your topic.

Society and Culture

● How many people live in your country?
● What are the three most prevalent religions?
● What ethnic groups reside in your country?
● What are the biggest NGOs in your country and what are they fighting for?
● What is the state of human, women’s, and children’s rights?
● Watch some YouTube videos on what it is like living in your country.
● What is the state of education in your country?

Economy
● On a spectrum between capitalism and communism, where does your
country stand? (Hint: economic freedom index)
● What are the biggest exports and imports?
● Who are your biggest trading partners? (Hint: big trade partners are
generally also allies)
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● What is your country’s GDP? How does this compare to neighboring

countries? How does it compare to allies?
● How prevalent is poverty? What is the average income?
● Is economic inequality a problem in your country? (Hint: Gini index)

Government
● What is the system of government? Liberal or illiberal democracy,
dictatorship, monarchy, military rule, anarchy, theocracy, etc.
● What are the most influential political bodies? Upper and lower house,
cabinet, ministries and departments, supreme court, etc.
● Who are the biggest parties? What are their policies?
● Who are the ruling party, the head of state, and the head of government at
the moment? Who was it before?
● How prevalent is corruption and inefficiency?
● How fair are the elections, if there are any?
● Is your government openly religious? How much?

Geography
● How large is your country?
● What natural resources does it have? Which ones does it lack?
● What is the general geography of your country? Temperature, landscapes,
waters, etc.
● What seas and oceans does it have access to? Do these hold any economic or
political significance?
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Step 2: Preparing for the Topic(s)

As the second step of your preparation, you will need to familiarize yourself with
what the topics are. Here are some steps and questions to guide you in doing that.

1. Understand what the topic means and what it focuses on

● The best way to do this is to look at the background guide, if the conference
offers one. These guides will usually define what is meant by the topic,
which can seem too general at first.
● If you still aren’t sure what the topic means, you should turn to one of your
organizers or delegation leaders. If you know who your chairs will be, you
can also contact them.
● You can try copying and pasting your topic into Google to see if it has been
used in past MUN or UN resolutions or find articles about it.

2. Research the topic itself.

● Before you research your country’s position on the topic, you first need to
have a deep understanding of the issue itself.
● When has this issue started? Create a chronology of the topic which outlines
the 5-10 most important events that have happened. You can include when
the issue started, who the main contributors were, and how certain events
connect to others. You can make this chronology as detailed as you want.
The more time you spend on this, the better you will grasp the issue.
● What has stopped countries from working out a solution to this problem?
This is an extremely important question for you to consider. If something
hasn’t worked out in the past and your fellow committee members are
trying to do the same, you will be able to point out that this has already been
tried. Researching this question will also help you understand the
complexities of your topic and why it cannot be easily solved.
● Who are the main members/contributors to this issue? This can be
countries, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, companies, social
groups, or individuals.
● List some of the sub-problems that surround this issue.
● What other issues is this one connected to? What issue would be needed to
be solved for this one to be solved?
● List five steps that could be taken to solve this issue. (Hint: do these align
with your country’s policy?)

3. Researching your country’s policy on the topic

● Do some general research on your country’s attitude towards the topic.
○ One of the biggest struggles of MUN delegates is having a country that
is not affected by an issue or is not active in resolving it. Even if this is
the case for you, you should still be active in contributing to the
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debate. When this is the case, you don’t have to reflect the reality of
the UN. Your chairs will understand that your country isn’t active in
the topic, but you still absolutely should be. Don’t forget: you can still
write resolutions on topics that your country isn’t that big on. Your
country’s neutrality might even help you, because you will be able to
craft a resolution that adheres to your country policy while satisfying
other countries’ needs as well!
○ You can use your research from Step 1 to try to predict how your
country would address the topic, even if it hasn’t done so. A good way
to look at this is to
■ Look at how it has addressed similar topics (for example: if
your country favors legalizing light drugs, it is also likely to be
in favor of other similar policy questions)
■ Look at who your country is allied with or is similar to. There
are many countries who are “policy twins” and essentially
have the same policies on everything, like Muslim countries,
the Visegrad 4 countries, liberal western nations, etc.
● What has your country done to address the issue? Draw a timeline of your
country’s actions related to the issue. Researching this question is incredibly
important because many of your speeches will need you to present what you
have already done. You can share what has worked and what has not with
fellow delegates in order to be able to craft policy suggestions that will
actually work.
● How has your country’s stance changed on the issue?
● What are key actors in your country who are involved in the issue? Think
about government agencies, NGOs, individuals, movements, companies, etc.
Go to their websites and articles about them to find out what they have done
and what they stand for.
● What are the different blocs within your country and what are their stances
on the issue?
● Is your country well equipped to address the issue? What would you need in
order to be able to better address it?
● How radical is your country? How important does it find the issue? If your
country is very radical, think about how you will be able to present your
ideas and have others support it while still sticking to your country policy.
Your resolutions don’t have to be as radical as your country is, especially if
that means that no one will vote for it.

4. Researching your committee

● What is your committee’s mission? What was it established to achieve? How
does this topic fit within that framework?
● What actions is your committee legally able to take? Remember, only the
Security Council can pass legally binding resolutions.
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Step 3: Predicting what will happen

Now that you are an expert on both your country, your topic, and your country
policy, it is time to predict what will happen at the conference. This will allow you
to be even more prepared to debate. Don’t worry, your predictions don’t have to be
accurate, and there is a high chance that they won’t be. The point of this step is to
get you to start using all of the research that you’ve done so far to begin thinking
within the framework of the conference.

1. Predicting the blocs

● Find the country matrix (also called country list). A country matrix is a
conference’s list of every country that will be represented in each
committee. It is usually available on the website, but you might have to ask
your delegation leader or your director for it. Not every conference has a
country matrix, but most do. You should do these steps even if there is no
country matrix.
● Based on your research, what do you think the most prevalent blocs will be?
Remember, bloc means a group of countries that work together during the
conference. They generally have similar or the same policies on the issue
and are often allied with each other, although not always. Craft a rough list
of the different stances that countries take and place a few countries into
each group. If you have a country matrix, you can use it to organize them
into the blocs. Don’t forget to put yourself into one or more of the blocs too.

2. Predicting your allies and enemies

● The most important thing to know here is that there is no way for you to
know what your fellow delegates will be like.
○ There will be some delegates who are completely unprepared and
know nothing about the issue. These delegates usually end up being
the least active during committee sessions. It is extremely important
that you recruit these delegates to be on your side, but luckily it is
often easy to convince them. They don’t even need to be your
country’s allies to join your bloc. They will be of key importance later,
especially during close votes.
○ Other delegates will be very prepared, perhaps even more prepared
than you. There will also be delegates who are extremely experienced
or have an excellent ability of convincing others. It is good to have as
many of them on your side, but remember that the strongest blocs
almost always have the best leader(s).
● All this is to say that it is a good thing to be prepared in other country
policies as well. The best way to do this is to follow the news on a regular
basis. If you do this, it will come naturally (it is also generally a very good
practice for every delegate). About a month before the conference starts, you
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should start following news agencies or columns that focus specifically on

your topic, and try noting who the key players are once again.
● There are many good databases for checking your foreign relations, like
Wikipedia or the MUN App. At the conference, you don’t have to only form
blocs strictly with your allies, because that would probably be very limiting,
unless you are a popular country. You should try to form a bloc with a
combination of your allies and the countries who agree with you on the
topic. Don’t worry though, bloc formation is natural and fast.

3. Predicting the debate

● One of the most common questions from delegates is, “how do I know what
exactly the sessions will be about?” especially in the cases of broad topics.
● The best way to predict the debate is carefully reading the background guide
given by the chairs of the conference, as that often further defines the scope
of the debate
● Another good way is to think about what you find the most interesting, and
what you think most people would find the most interesting. This is also a
good way to predict which topic will be debated the most, if you have
multiple topics. Delegates usually like to debate the more controversial
aspects of issues and often avoid going into technicalities.
● Also keep in mind that some conferences specifically have a primary and a
secondary topic, in which case you should spend way more time preparing
for the primary topic.
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Step 4: During the conference

If you thought your research is over when you get on the plane / train / Zoom
account that takes you to the conference, you were wrong. The best delegates
continue researching even during the conference, especially during the evenings
after committee sessions. Don’t research too much during the conference because
you were supposed to do all of this at home. Even if you didn’t, you should have fun
and hang out with your fellow delegates. Don’t skip out on social events saying that
you have to research, it’s really not worth it.

● If your conference has a no electronics policy (most do), then make sure that
you respect it. If this is the case, you won’t be able to research during the
committee sessions, but you can still research after waking up, during lunch
breaks, the evening, and at night. From personal experience, you won’t have
much time to do this, and the best time to research is at night.

Your rivals
● After your very first committee session, you will start to have a rough idea of
who the most active delegates are and who your biggest rivals are going to
be. These are the countries you want to focus on researching.
● If you can already sense a rivalry forming between you and a country, start
digging up dirt on them. If you know what their biggest attacks on you are,
find ways to rebut or deny their claims.
● Obviously, you don’t want to be too harsh on other countries, but you are
likely to get in situations where you have a very strong rivalry with someone.
It is best to have a toolbox of arguments that you can use against them, and
also know what their arguments are going to be, and be able to rebut them.
Make sure that you don’t reuse any of your arguments during the conference
though, unless absolutely necessary.

Your resolution or operative clauses

● You will probably have a way better idea of the scope of the debate when it
has already started, and you might even feel inspired to expand your
resolution or operative clauses.
● Make sure that you have the email addresses of your bloc members so that
you can edit the resolution together. Don’t forget to tell them if you changed
something.
● It is a good idea to write new operative clauses or amendments that address
concerns that were raised during committee sessions.

Miscellaneous
● If you didn’t understand something that happened during the committee
sessions, write it down and Google it later.
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Bonus: Pro Tips

● Download and browse the MUN App, it’s incredibly useful.
● If you can’t find enough material about your country in English, use the
Google Translate Chrome Extension to translate entire pages into English.
● Stick to quality sources during your research, but note that your country’s
definition of a reliable source might be very different from our Western
definition of it.
● There are tons of resources for delegates on the internet, the most famous
one being bestdelegate.com
● Don’t be scared to contact your chairs! They are actually really nice people
and are just as excited to attend the conference as you. They will be happy to
answer any questions that you have.
● It is the job of The Presidency to help delegates prepare. They are highly
experienced delegates, and asking them questions will help you a lot. They
also have fun MUN stories, if you’re interested.
● One of the best ways to improve your resolution is to get second opinions on
it. Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow delegates or The Presidency for
feedback on it. You might even be able to get it debated at an MUN session to
see what other delegates’ reactions to it are.
● If you are taking a module or a class where you are writing an essay and you
have the chance to write an essay about your topic, do it. You can also just
make it an independent project. Diving really deep in a topic by reading,
writing, and debating it can look great in your college application, and your
MUN topic could be your first step in your expertise on it.
● Reading academic journals and essays on your topic can be super helpful. If
you feel that something is too high level (often happens with science topics),
then just don’t read it and move on. Reading the abstracts of papers is
usually enough.
● Many conferences have their own newspaper or blog. They put tons of effort
into making it and they can be useful too. Who knows, maybe they will
publish your own writings if you ask nicely.
● When preparing for a conference, represent your country at regular MUN
sessions too.
● Recognize that much of the research that you do now will be directly or
indirectly useful in your later life, including academic endeavors, and will
also make you a more informed person in general. Also, the process of
researching for a conference is very similar to university level academic
writing, MUN, and debate.
● It is often difficult to make time for research when you are buried in
schoolwork and modules. I recommend watching YouTube videos, because
they don’t require much energy but still are very insightful.
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● Distributing your research over a span of months rather than days can make
you feel less overwhelmed. It will also drastically improve your time
management skills.