By Menachem Wecker
When Secretary of Defense Ben Murphy ordered 24 naval vessels to the Gulf of Aden, he did not realize he was relocating a quarter of the entire U.S. Navy. “Needless to say, the backlash was huge after this,” he says.
Before panic ensues, it is worth noting Mr. Murphy is a junior at Cleveland High School in Cleveland, Tenn., and the U.S. National Security Council he sat on was part of the Washington Area Model United Nations Conference (WAMUNC) at GW March 25-28.
“It was so much fun having to come up with super important decisions on the spot,” says Mr. Murphy. “It exceeded everything that I was expecting!”
According to Alison Salisbury, secretary-general of WAMUNC XII, Mr. Murphy was one of 900 high school student delegates, who came from 40 high schools across the country, and six international schools in Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras and Colombia.
Ms. Salisbury, a junior at the Elliott School of International Affairs, got involved with Model UN as a freshman. She served in 2008 as vice chair of the World Health Organization and as under secretary-general of the Joint Crisis Cabinet in 2009.
“After helping design WAMUNC from behind the scenes, I knew that was where my passions were for Model UN,” says Ms. Salisbury, who serves on the executive board of the student organization, the International Affairs Society, which organizes the conference.
“My role as secretary general is to provide direction for building WAMUNC,” she says. “Each year, planning for the next WAMUNC starts immediately after the previous conference has finished.”
Ms. Salisbury also managed a secretariat of 13, designed committees and promoted the conference to high schools. “The secretary-general leads the vision for the conference each year,” she says. “This year, my vision focused on the theme of encouraging the importance of negotiation in diplomacy.”
Allida Black, director and editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt papers project at GW and a research professor of history and international affairs, focused on the topic of negotiation in her keynote address at the opening ceremony of the conference. Delegates also received t-shirts with the quote from John F. Kennedy, “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.”
“My goal was to teach delegates that diplomacy is more than just bringing something to the table,” says Ms. Salisbury. “It is about bringing something to the table that you are willing to give up in order to gain more.”
Dr. Black was one of eight GW faculty members to address delegates at the conference. The other faculty members were Douglas Shaw, associate dean for planning, research and external relations at the Elliott School; Charles Glaser, director of the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies; Bernard Wood, director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology; Amb. Karl Inderfurth, director of GW’s graduate program in international affairs; Deepa Ollapally, associate director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies; Maggie Xiaoyang Chen, assistant professor of economics and international affairs; and Robert Rosenberg, adjunct professor of global health.
According to Ms. Salisbury, WAMUNC is one of the few conferences for high school students run by college students on a university campus. “This gives delegates a great feel for what colleges feel like,” she says. “For many delegates, their experiences at WAMUNC often result in their decision to apply to GW, and in some cases even decide to attend the university.” The opportunity to participate in a conference in the heart of Washington makes the event “a great experience that delegates cannot get at any other Model UN conference.”
Mr. Murphy, and his classmate Cullen Mitchell who also attended the conference, agree wholeheartedly.
“I had a blast,” says Mr. Mitchell, “can’t wait to do it next year!”
Mr. Murphy says he has been considering two professional trajectories based on strengths of his high school: film and politics.
“This past weekend really made me think about this,” he says. “I had so much fun at this conference that it made me want to do something like this for a profession.”
Asked if he would recommend Model UN to others, Mr. Murphy could hardly hold back his excitement.
“Yes! Model UN is such a great experience. I really wish I could do it all year long!” he said. “I had such a great time at WAMUNC that I really didn’t even want to leave. I have no worries that next year WAMUNC will be able to succeed in making their Model UN conference the most interesting and enjoyable one yet!”