Topic C: The Kurds
The Kurds are an ethnic group of over 30 million people distributed across the eastern Turkey, northen Iraq, western Iran and northern Syria. The group have a bloody past and an uncertain future, they are the largest stateless ethnic group and over the last century, and have argued that that situation makes them deserving of sovereign state, advocating for the creation of a Kurd state, sometimes called the Kurdistan.
However the Kurds do not advocate it under a single banner, there are multiple different groups under the Kurd name, and among the most staggering differences between self-proclaimed kurds, lies the PKK militancy and the Kurdish Peshmerga. The PKK is acknowledged as a terrorist group for its actions by several international organizations, such as the European Union and NATO. While the Kurdish Peshmerga are known as staunch allies of NATO and the best fighting force for dealing with the threat of the ever rising threat that is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
The problems that the international community faces are: how to define a Kurd? How to separate those who are legitimally oppresed on their countries from those who are only banding together for pollitical leverage? Is a Kurdish state a threat to the Middle East? Is maintaining the status quo an even bigger threat?
Topic A: War on Drugs
In the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs, and in 1971 when the United States President Richard Nixon launched the "War on Drugs", the politicians believed that the strict application of repressive policies against those responsible for the production, distribution and consumption of drugs, would lead to a reduction in the market of illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and cannabis, until they get to a world entirely "free of drugs".
Otherwise, the result was the opposite of the desired; the global war on drugs has failed, leaving devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world and the dramatic growth of a global market of illicit drugs, largely controlled by organized crime in transnational scale. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has identified many serious “unintended negative consequences”, including widespread human rights violations.
Whether or not the war on drugs is the right approach and correctly implemented, the other options – including decriminalization, models of legal regulation and alternative developments – should be debated and explored. However, what alternative developments would really become a successful solution to the ongoing World Drug problem? On the other hand, when, considering an alternative to drug prohibition, is the decriminalization really the best option?
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
Topic B: The Spartly Islands Dispute
The Spratly Islands dispute is an ongoing territorial conflict between Brunei, People's Republic of China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, concerning the sovereignty of the Spratly Islands, a group of islands located in the South China Sea.
The Spratly Islands are important for economic and strategic reasons – it is one of the busiest areas of commercial shipping traffic. Besides, it contains significant reserves of oil and natural gas that are not well explored.
China claims sovereignty over much of the sea, but it faces not only rival claims from Southeast Asian countries but also growing wariness from the United States and its allies.