Topic B: Security Threats in the Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea, which is bordered by Cote D'ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, has historically been under a series of threats, which are mainly represented by Organised Crime, Theft and Piracy. These cause a major security issue in the region, which by itself has not been able to contain such problems.
This region currently produces around 70% of Africa's Oil and is in a key geographical position to trade both with Europe and North America. Considering that the older Oil deposits are being depleted, the Gulf of Guinea's importance as an oil producing region and tradepost will drastically increase, thus leading the region's global importance to increase as well, therefore raising the impacts of Piracy.
Aside from that, Organised Crime and Theft have as well been contributing not only to the region's lack of security, but also spreading over to the rest of the world, in the sense that terrorist organisations such as Boko Haram have been using such tactics to fund themselves.
Being so that other organizations such as the ECOWAS and EU have already taken action regarding these Security Threats, we emphasize the vital importance of the UNSC assuming a firm and pragmatic position to deal with this matter.
Topic A: The Situation in the Arctic
The lack of colonization of the frozen arctic area during the centuries and the possibility of a great reserve of gas has been drawing the attention of the great powers towards those areas on the past few years.
Located next to the territories of many countries, notedly Russia and the United States, the Arctic Circle has never attracted the attention of its neighbouring countries, apart from scientists interested in its fauna and flora. This disinterest resulted on the acceptance by these countries of the treaties that ruled the region during the last century, and allowed the creation of the Arctic Council for a common administration of interests in the region.
The assumptions that the Arctic may englobe respectively 35% and 15% of all the gas and oil reserves in the globe lead Russia and other countries to claim sovereignty not only over the islands covered by the 1907’s treaty, but also over its surrounding waters and the sea floor.
Now, with all technology advancement and the melting of the polar cap, the exploration of this region calls the world’s attention to a new -and literal- cold war. Russia has already ordered two atomic icebreaker ships and intends to have a self-sufficient army force in the Arctic until 2018. Moreover, the private American oil-company Shell is near to reopening its oil exploration activities in the region.
Nevertheless, both sides assume that this is a single opportunity for cooperation on the region, despite the growing armament of the pole. Only diplomacy will determine whether cooperation or conflict will prevail.
Created in 1945, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) holds the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, following the aftermath of the Second World War. To properly achieve such goals, the Council was designed as the most important organ of the UN, being the only whose decisions had effective binding power upon all Member States of the UN. Moreover, it is also in the Council’s mandate the right to authorize the use of force through peacekeeping operations or military coalitions and also to impose economic and military sanctions, but always as a last resort when all negotiations have failed.

​The UNSC is formed by fifteen members, of which five are permanent and ten are selected by the General Assembly for two year terms. The five permanent members of the Security Council are China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States. Since 2014 the first five temporary members of the UNSC are Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria. In 2015, five new members were elected by the General Assembly, namely Angola, Spain, Malaysia, New Zealand and Venezuela.
Topics Overview
United Nations Security Council