Research and Preparation For Crises

1. Jim Smith, VP of Conference Preparation, MSUIRO Research and Preparation For Crises

2. The Background Guide • Every committee with have one of these. • It will provide a solid collection of foundational information, including: • The topics of the committee, including hints at or explicit references to possible crisis events • The characters with short bios (not always, but often); If you don’t get one, you should probably try to email your chair or crisis director to get your hands on it, so you know what your character is meant to do, and how they should act. • The special rules of committee • Be very familiar with it.

3. Most Important Parts of BG • Events leading up to your crisis committee: • Usually a detailed history, either completely accurate or sometimes slightly changed (what if committee). • The Character Bios: • This is the best way to quickly find out who is a friend and who is an enemy. • Read these before committee and while in committee and take notes when each person speaks. • The topics: • May be subtly mentioned or be a main point. • Be ready for anything that is mentioned.

4. After the Background Guide • You will need to do more research than just the BG. Some delegates spend months preparing for a crisis and go much further than what the staff provides them. • Wikipedia CAN be a good starting point, but be sure you don’t rely on it as anything other than a tool for general familiarity, and perhaps for finding sources. • Where else you need to look will depend on the nature of the crisis. If it’s a modern-day crisis, choose a few periodicals and make sure you understand all the intricacies of various actors’ interaction on your topic or your committee framework, as well as relevant recent events. More on this in the following slides.

5. Modern-Day Crises • Newspapers and magazines will offer a great deal of insight on the various actors, events, issues, problems, and potential solutions to various problems. • If there’s a lot of history that leads up to your committee and topics, try to find a book or two at the library about your organization or the issues at hand. • Ex: If you are part of a committee about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, you’ll want to know about the different factions on both sides, (i.e. Fatah and Hamas for Palestine, hardliners and liberals for Israel), as well as the relevant international actors (often states – Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, etc.). You might also want to skim a book that lays out the history of the conflict, including past efforts at solving the crisis (treaties, summits, and so forth).

6. Historical Crises • Obviously, periodicals will be less useful here, unless you dig up magazines or newspapers from the period. In that case, I applaud your initiative. • Get a couple of books about the body the committee is supposed to represent, and use reputable internet sources to fill in your understanding, particularly about your own character. If it was an actual person, that makes things easy, but it won’t always be so. If your person is invented, use your character bio to determine what sort of person you’re supposed to represent, and try to find a historical analogue for yourself. Research them as a substitute. • Remember, after the committee begins, any history that is supposed to occur can go out the window. Be a little familiar, because pieces of it may crop up, but don’t rely on it.

7. Fictional Crises • If your crisis is based on a book, television series, movie, graphic novel, series of action figures, etc., your job is simultaneously easier and more difficult. • You can’t rely on general world knowledge in most cases to guide you through your interactions, so you need to be very familiar with the source material; read/watch as much of it as you can stand or have time for. • That being said, you also have a pretty well-defined set of boundaries for possible research. You can’t really panic about not finding enough sources, or all the right ones – you just need to make use of them.

8. Research Tips • If something is extremely unclear in your research and you can not resolve it, email your chair or crisis director; most are very friendly and will help you if an issue arises. Efforts such as these have the added benefit of showing them you are taking the committee seriously well before the conference starts. • If at all possible, do some niche research. Find an area of the debate with which others will not be as familiar, and which can really put you in a place where everyone comes to you for information. This is a well-worn tactic of IRO delegates, and has met with a great deal of success.

9. Before Committee Starts • Begin developing your battle plans. • Keep them very loose and contingent but still have a good idea of what some of your main goals are. • Identify who your chair and crisis director are when they are introduced. • Go to the committee room 15-30 minutes before the committee starts. • Speak with fellow delegates, about where they’re from, their position, why they chose the committee, etc. • Then speak to them in general terms about the committee. KEEP IT BRIEF! • If the opportunity presents itself, chat with the chair a bit. Keep it friendly and preferably outside the scope of committee.